From: pjb@informatimago.com (Pascal J. Bourguignon)
To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Replacement for Common Lisp's GENSYM in Emacs Lisp
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:48:12 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <87hbomtqz7.fsf@galatea.lan.informatimago.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: mailman.2390.1267942438.14305.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi> writes:
> * 2010-03-07 06:48 (+0100), tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Mar 06, 2010 at 05:19:43PM +0200, Teemu Likonen wrote:
>>> In Common Lisp GENSYM function generates unique symbol names. It
>>> seems that Emacs Lisp does not have similar function (unless with CL
>>> extension). In plain Emacs Lisp code and macros, what would you
>>> suggest as a replacement for GENSYM? Just some very unlikely names?
>>
>> It seems `make-symbol' is what you are looking for. It generates an
>> uninterned symbol. Cf. Emacs Lisp manual "13.6.3 Local Variables in
>> Macro Expansions" to find an usage example.
>
> That's right. My question was rather stupid, or at least asked too
> hastily. It was in my mental patterns that I need GENSYM to create
> symbols for macros. So I immediately thought I need to write a GENSYM
> replacement for Emacs Lisp. But as you and David pointed out, the point
> wasn't really unique print names but uninterned symbols. So make-symbol
> is often sufficient. Thanks.
Of course, (even in Common Lisp) macros could always use make-symbol.
If we use (gensym), or even better, (gensym "varname"), it's to be able
to read the expansion of macros. It's a debugging device.
But we could also (setq print-circle t) and use (make-symbol "varname");
the #=/## notation will allow us to distinguish the different symbols
generated.
--
__Pascal Bourguignon__
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2010-03-11 22:48 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 12+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2010-03-06 15:19 Replacement for Common Lisp's GENSYM in Emacs Lisp Teemu Likonen
2010-03-07 5:48 ` tomas
2010-03-07 6:13 ` Teemu Likonen
[not found] ` <mailman.2390.1267942438.14305.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2010-03-11 22:48 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon [this message]
[not found] <mailman.2359.1267888813.14305.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2010-03-06 16:10 ` David Kastrup
2010-03-06 16:35 ` Teemu Likonen
2010-03-07 7:07 ` Tim X
2010-03-07 19:06 ` Stefan Monnier
2010-03-07 22:07 ` Helmut Eller
2010-03-08 4:55 ` Stefan Monnier
2010-03-08 7:01 ` Helmut Eller
2010-03-09 2:33 ` Stefan Monnier
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