Re: let-alist can't deal with the keys which includes spaces.

[Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor <help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>]

tomas wrote:

>> Uhm, what is the purpose with `let-alist' and "dotted
>> symbols" to begin with?
>
> `let-alist' is just a handy way to destructure an alist.
>
> Assume we have
>
>   (setq colours '((poppy . red) (cornflower . blue) (sunflower . yellow)))
>
> Instead of doing
>
>   (let ((rose (alist-get 'rose colours))
>         (cornflower (alist-get 'cornflower colours))
>         (sunflower (alist-get 'sunflower colours)))
>     ;; do something with rose, cornflower...
>     )
>
> you just do
>
>   (let-alist colours
>     ;; do something with .rose, .cornflower...
>   )

The docstring is confusing IMO, your example so-so but better
because of the initial "`let-alist' is just a handy way to
destructure an alist" line, but why not just put it like this?

(setq numbers '((one   . 1)
                (two   . 2)
                (three . 3)
                (four  . 4) ))

(let-alist numbers
  (list .one .two .three .four) ) ; (1 2 3 4)

> The dots are part of the symbol name, they aren't special
> Lisp syntax.

Perhaps, but in practice they are part of the `let-alist'
special syntax.

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