From: Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>
To: Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se>, help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: RE: How to quote a list of functions?
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2015 18:54:22 -0700 (PDT) [thread overview]
Message-ID: <87b6cce0-ebe6-400a-b6e9-957e79a66511@default> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <8737zhcsvo.fsf@nl106-137-147.student.uu.se>
> when and why are functions refered to not
> using symbols to designate them?
Anonymous functions.
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Anonymous-Functions.html
In Emacs Lisp, a named function is named by a symbol.
In Common Lisp, a named function is named by either a symbol
or a list of the form `(setf SYMBOL)'.
http://clhs.lisp.se/Body/26_glo_f.htm#function_name
> Isn't the most natural way to refer to a function (or
> anything else) just to type its name?
Natural? Please take a poll of the biomass, and get back to us.
> What are we gaining from having people and not
> computers deal with this distinction?
A function has other aspects (signature, in particular),
besides it name.
Just as a symbol has aspects (variable value, plist) other
than its name and its function value.
What do we "gain" by such distinctions?
The distinctions are not just mental constructs; they are
real - real distinctions wrt behavior.
In the case of people, it's observable behavior that we
care about. We typically don't care about all of the
computer-level behavior. But we do care about behavior
distinctions because we make use of them.
We can make _use_ of the different aspects of functions,
symbols, whatever. You ignore such differences at your
own peril. Or to be less dramatic: it's your loss.
Ignoring that there are different aspects means ignoring
what a Lisp function (or symbol or whatever) _is_, which
also means ignoring what it can be used for and how it
can be used.
In Lisp, in particular, you can treat `(lambda (x) (* x 2))'
as a list, in addition to treating it as a function. It
has different behaviors depending on what you do with it.
Likewise, a symbol such as `car'. Now it's a function;
now it's a variable; now it's neither; now it's an object
with a plist attribute.
Lisp lets you have your cake and eat it too. If you
don't want to eat it, that's up to you.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2015-08-18 1:54 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 81+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2015-08-08 23:42 How to quote a list of functions? Marcin Borkowski
2015-08-08 23:48 ` Dmitry Gutov
2015-08-09 0:09 ` Marcin Borkowski
2015-08-09 6:18 ` Dmitry Gutov
2015-08-09 8:04 ` Marcin Borkowski
[not found] ` <mailman.7992.1439078979.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-09 0:33 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-09 8:06 ` Marcin Borkowski
[not found] ` <mailman.8016.1439107624.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-09 10:26 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-09 10:47 ` Marcin Borkowski
[not found] ` <mailman.8020.1439117265.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-09 11:42 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-09 1:53 ` Emanuel Berg
2015-08-09 8:05 ` Marcin Borkowski
2015-08-09 15:58 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.8033.1439136046.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-10 0:08 ` Barry Margolin
2015-08-10 2:02 ` Ian Zimmerman
2015-08-11 1:06 ` Emanuel Berg
2015-08-11 1:16 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.8102.1439255290.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-11 6:16 ` Barry Margolin
2015-08-12 2:50 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.8167.1439348114.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-12 7:01 ` Barry Margolin
2015-08-13 1:31 ` Emanuel Berg
2015-08-13 1:56 ` Stefan Monnier
2015-08-13 1:59 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.8228.1439429711.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-13 4:20 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-13 23:55 ` Emanuel Berg
2015-08-14 0:38 ` John Mastro
2015-08-15 1:38 ` Emanuel Berg
2015-08-15 21:16 ` John Mastro
2015-08-16 23:56 ` Emanuel Berg
2015-08-17 0:06 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-17 0:34 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.8449.1439771796.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-17 1:19 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-17 1:40 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.8450.1439775768.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-17 2:31 ` Barry Margolin
2015-08-17 3:07 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-18 0:52 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.8494.1439859284.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-18 1:32 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-19 0:11 ` Emanuel Berg
2015-08-17 3:04 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-18 1:00 ` Emanuel Berg
2015-08-18 1:54 ` Drew Adams [this message]
2015-08-19 0:29 ` Emanuel Berg
2015-08-19 0:48 ` Emanuel Berg
2015-08-19 1:37 ` Drew Adams
2015-08-19 21:57 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.8599.1439945431.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-19 1:54 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-19 3:27 ` Stefan Monnier
2015-08-19 11:54 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-19 22:15 ` get all functions (was: Re: How to quote a list of functions?) Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.8499.1439873185.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-18 5:03 ` How to quote a list of functions? Rusi
2015-08-18 10:43 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
[not found] ` <mailman.8495.1439859773.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-18 1:43 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-18 23:46 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.8448.1439770003.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-17 0:15 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-17 6:29 ` tomas
2015-08-18 1:03 ` Emanuel Berg
2015-08-18 7:44 ` tomas
2015-08-18 10:51 ` Marcin Borkowski
2015-08-19 0:34 ` Emanuel Berg
2015-08-19 14:22 ` Marcin Borkowski
2015-08-19 20:21 ` tomas
2015-08-21 19:27 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.41.1440185412.11330.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-21 20:09 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-21 23:38 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.49.1440200400.11330.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-21 23:46 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-23 21:39 ` Emanuel Berg
2015-08-23 22:16 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.147.1440366096.11330.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-23 23:59 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-24 0:39 ` Emanuel Berg
2015-08-24 1:42 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.1.1440425878.7866.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-24 18:42 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-24 19:43 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.33.1440446412.28410.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-24 23:32 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-19 22:04 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] ` <mailman.8506.1439895686.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-18 11:18 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
[not found] ` <mailman.8299.1439510265.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-14 7:56 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-15 1:30 ` Emanuel Berg
[not found] <mailman.7990.1439077354.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-09 0:30 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-09 1:08 ` Michael Heerdegen
[not found] ` <mailman.7994.1439082517.904.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2015-08-09 1:23 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2015-08-09 8:12 ` Marcin Borkowski
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