Re: Simple elisp problem with equal

[Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@glug.org>]

exits funnel <exitsfunnel@yahoo.com> writes:

> (equal system-type "gnu/linux")

play w/ `type-of' to see the difference.

(type-of (+ 6 (* 6 6))) => integer

(type-of (type-of (+ 6 (* 6 6)))) => ???

> (princ system-type)
>
> evaluate to "gnu/linuxgnu/linux" rather than just
> "gnu/linux"?

there are two things to look at (for a start ;-),
namely the value of an expression and its side
effects.  one way to separate them for better
understanding is to save the value for examination
later, during the evaluation of the expression:

(setq some-var (princ system-type))

then you can do `C-h v some-var RET' after mulling
the side effects (which cannot be saved in this way).

also, try `C-h c C-j' in the *scratch* buffer.

thi