From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Barry Margolin Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: One more question about elisp Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:31:29 -0500 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Message-ID: References: <53781544-57b8-4cde-a07a-c3632d8bac7f@a32g2000yqm.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1257561704 2998 80.91.229.12 (7 Nov 2009 02:41:44 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 02:41:44 +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 Nov 07 03:41:37 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1N6bFB-0004QB-9x for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:41:37 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:36349 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1N6bFA-0003zJ-UJ for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:41:36 -0500 Original-Path: news.stanford.edu!usenet.stanford.edu!news.glorb.com!news2.glorb.com!feeder.erje.net!newsfeed.straub-nv.de!feeder.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!barmar.motzarella.org!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 24 Original-X-Trace: news.eternal-september.org U2FsdGVkX18Rv9mxdR7VoSHJ/+oysZl7sRUiHTTv5uD8rwbVwgxZu3VWcigvMUFANU86B+4rcBOzt/SO7rl7hRqNdyxr7ppHhbAa6p1PzzEJewO8aJQNUaK+HxDOeVmL94/9rKNpTWU= Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@eternal-september.org Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 02:31:29 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: MT-NewsWatcher/3.5.3b3 (Intel Mac OS X) X-Auth-Sender: U2FsdGVkX19Etm1lz8iLXstFSxnOTNhhiwg4BMbssHk= Cancel-Lock: sha1:2qPPb1kPHqfTsz3aB5Z6OFCEQ18= Original-Xref: news.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:174497 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:69569 Archived-At: In article , LanX wrote: > On 6 Nov., 22:05, Francis Moreau wrote: > > It sounds strange to me (knowing C, python) to use hash tables to > > structure data. > > You never used dicts in python for structured data??? That's also how it's done in Perl, where they're called hashes. This is a very convenient way to implement structured data that's easily extended. You don't have to predefine the object layout, you can add new elements on the fly easily. It probably wouldn't have been practical 20-30 years ago when Lisp idioms were being created. The overhead of hashing so frequently would have been excessive on that generation of computers. -- Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** *** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***