From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Barry Margolin Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: using setq to create lists based on other lists... Date: Wed, 05 Dec 2018 11:59:32 -0500 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Message-ID: References: <878t14dbms.fsf@robertthorpeconsulting.com> <89ae7d4c-e343-49e5-8e9e-454000e60b80@default> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1544029169 10543 195.159.176.226 (5 Dec 2018 16:59:29 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2018 16:59:29 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: MT-NewsWatcher/3.5.3b3 (Intel Mac OS X) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Dec 05 17:59:25 2018 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1gUaWC-0002dn-Ru for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 05 Dec 2018 17:59:24 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:35652 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1gUaYJ-0005PS-3n for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 05 Dec 2018 12:01:35 -0500 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!goblin1!goblin.stu.neva.ru!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!barmar.motzarella.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 33 Original-Injection-Info: barmar.motzarella.org; posting-host="742e6ad88036f24b0ef038e615c3f32b"; logging-data="25562"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/a82l1yrNldjf53vQWkKl0" Cancel-Lock: sha1:AsqQ8BcKgw08CuZZU6ElNeWJbMs= Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:224739 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 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" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:118868 Archived-At: In article , Drew Adams wrote: > > > Lisp is typically not a Lisp learner's first language. > > > > Emacs could (and is) used by first learners and ... > > the Introduction could be used as a Lisp manual for > > such people. > > Yes, of course. > > The point is that someone coming to Lisp from another > language, especially (and typically) from a language > where variables are essentially local & lexical, may > have a harder time "getting it" than someone learning > programming with Lisp as her first language. > > Things like list structure (including, yes, sharing > structure), symbols (named objects with properties), > dynamic scope/binding, `setq' (which can act on both > global & local vars), and even REPL/interpretation > can seem quite odd if you come to Lisp with only C > or Java or ... eyes. If you come to it from Java, JavaScript, or Python it actually shouldn't be that hard; they all pass data as references to structures. C and C++ are the only popular languages with explicit pointers. PHP is in between -- arrays are copied, but objects are not. -- Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***