Re: Help with recursive destructive function

[Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen@web.de>]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

> You want to do something more like
>
>     (let ((xs thing))
>       (while (consp xs)
>         (let ((x (car xs)))
>           (cond
>            ((stringp x) (setf (car xs) (upcase x)))
>            ((listp x) (walk x)))
>           (setq xs (cdr xs)))))

`cl-loop' can do this out of the box (not recursively, though):

‘for VAR being the elements of-ref SEQUENCE’
     This clause iterates over a sequence, with VAR a ‘setf’-able
     reference onto the elements; see ‘in-ref’ above.

Exactly what he wants.

I'm not sure, however, if it's a good idea to use a recursive function
to do that.  Recursing on cdrs can soon hit Emacs limits for very long
lists (and Eric, remember all the nested quotes you will need to
traverse ;-) ).  I guess I would use an iterator: the definition would
still looks recursive, but the execution isn't problematic any more if
done right.


Michael.