From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Emanuel Berg Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: etymology of obarray Date: Fri, 16 May 2014 20:46:01 +0200 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Message-ID: <87egztv9xy.fsf@debian.uxu> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1400266224 30430 80.91.229.3 (16 May 2014 18:50:24 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 16 May 2014 18:50:24 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri May 16 20:50:19 2014 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1WlND0-000144-UO for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 16 May 2014 20:50:19 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:37317 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1WlND0-0004Wc-FF for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 16 May 2014 14:50:18 -0400 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!newsfeed.xs4all.nl!newsfeed1.news.xs4all.nl!xs4all!news.stack.nl!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 49 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: u+UUXbnu1hlDFr5pMibebQ.user.speranza.aioe.org Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3 (gnu/linux) X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 Cancel-Lock: sha1:XELzCpavRwH15e4S+WwJkYciwxg= Mail-Copies-To: never Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:205453 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:97721 Archived-At: "B. T. Raven" writes: >> Where does the word obarray originate? What is >> "ob"? > > I think it's 'object', i.e. anything that (type-of) > returns. E.g. (type-of 'type-of) returns > symbol, > (type-of 1) returns > integer, etc. There is or was > also an oblist, which includes the same kind of info > in a list rather than a vector. The documentation - (describe-variable 'obarray) - reads: Symbol table for use by `intern' and `read'. It is a vector whose length ought to be prime for best results. The vector's contents don't make sense if examined from Lisp programs; to find all the symbols in an obarray, use `mapatoms'. Crystal clear! :) Here is an example of how to use the obarray - to echo simple variable values without fuss - (defun describe-variable-short (var) (interactive (let*((v (variable-at-point)) (var-at-point (not (eq v 0))) (v-name (if var-at-point (symbol-name v))) (v-final (completing-read (format " variable%s: " (if var-at-point (format " (default %s)" v) "")) obarray (lambda (vv) (or (get vv 'variable-documentation) (boundp vv) )) t ; require match nil ; no insert to minibuffer (?) nil ; no history v-name ))) `(,(intern v-final)) )) (message (format " %s: %s" (symbol-name var) (symbol-value var))) ) -- underground experts united: http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573