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: why are there [v e c t o r s] in Lisp? Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2015 06:40:49 +0200 Message-ID: <87k2qmw1im.fsf@debian.uxu> References: <87mvvjeg29.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> <87eggvebfs.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> <87pp0eckss.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1445056325 20153 80.91.229.3 (17 Oct 2015 04:32:05 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2015 04:32:05 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Oct 17 06:31:58 2015 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 1ZnJ9x-000191-Qu for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 17 Oct 2015 06:31:57 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:56910 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZnJ9x-0004vw-44 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 17 Oct 2015 00:31:57 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:46262) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZnJ9m-0004vj-FA for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 17 Oct 2015 00:31:47 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZnJ9h-0002he-9C for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 17 Oct 2015 00:31:46 -0400 Original-Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:42239) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZnJ9h-0002ha-2s for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 17 Oct 2015 00:31:41 -0400 Original-Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1ZnJ9e-0000og-8x for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 17 Oct 2015 06:31:38 +0200 Original-Received: from nl106-137-244.student.uu.se ([130.243.137.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 17 Oct 2015 06:31:38 +0200 Original-Received: from embe8573 by nl106-137-244.student.uu.se with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 17 Oct 2015 06:31:38 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Mail-Followup-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-Lines: 55 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: nl106-137-244.student.uu.se Mail-Copies-To: never User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.4 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:hXrq8GVp0+RCe+B8sIh+bF/yY9s= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 80.91.229.3 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:107691 Archived-At: "Pascal J. Bourguignon" writes: >> Why the syntax is there at all is to provide fast >> (faster) access to the vector data type which has >> other time and space properties than do lists. > > ABSOLUTELY NOT. > > For example, in C++ you have vectors and lists, but > you don't have any literal syntax for them. > > You can have fast and slow data structures without > having any literal syntax for it. > > Why do you keep confusing the two concepts? The original question was why there is a special syntax for vectors, even as lists are perfectly fitted to be vectors. The question was not why there are lists AND vectors. But that issue is also interesting so that discussion wasn't wasted on anyone who read it (perhaps). As for the syntax, the "literal" [1 2 3] is a faster and more readable way than (vector 1 2 3) to tell the computer when it should use what, because the computer isn't advanced enough to figure this out on it own. > For a higher fee, I guess we could even provide > a 60's job. For example, we could find a remote > COBOL job, and provide it to a programmer with punch > card/printer interfaces. If we did this good enough to a guy who recently had a car crash and lost his memory for a couple of weeks, probably he wouldn't mind if his new life was better than his old... You know, I know that this steak doesn't exist. I know when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. ... Ignorance is bliss. (Cypher) -- underground experts united http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573