Evaluating a variable under point?

[Elena <egarrulo@gmail.com>]

Hello,

I'm trying to write an interactive function which evaluates variable
at point, unless region is active. Currently it looks like this:

(defun smart-eval ()
	(interactive)
	(if mark-active
		(eval-region)
		(case (char-syntax  (char-after))
		  ((?w ?_)
		   (eval-expression (string (thing-at-point 'symbol))))
		  (t
		   (message "Nothing to evaluate.")))))

However, I'm not getting results. What's wrong?

Thanks.