From Newsgroup: comp.lang.lisp

(loop for i in *applelist*
maximizing (apple-radius i) into max
finally (return max))

This can be written simpler:
(loop for i in *applelist* maximizing (apple-radius i))
or
(reduce #'max *applelist* :key #'apple-radius)
Unfortunately I don't think there's really any elegant way to solve
your problem. It boils down to something like

(loop with biggest-apple = (first *applelist*)
for i in (rest *applelist*)
do (when (> (apple-radius i) (apple-radius biggest-apple))
(setf biggest-apple i))
finally (return biggest-apple))
--
Frode Vatvedt Fjeld

I hadn't seen reduce before. The following function solves my problem
rather nicely. Thanks for the idea, Frode.

(defun biggest (lst)
(reduce
(lambda (x y)
(if (bigger x y) x y))
lst))

Gauche Scheme

(use gauche.collection) ;; find-max

(find-max '("to" "and" "four" "o") :key string-length)
===>
"four"
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