Re: why are there [v e c t o r s] in Lisp?

[Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se>]

Random832 <random832@fastmail.com> writes:

>> ... why? If lists are vectors, which they are in
>> terms of what they hold and how they look, then you
>> don't need more code compared to vectors, on the
>> contrary you need less code!
>
> The thing is, a vector in elisp terms is a specific
> type of object. It's in contiguous memory, and you
> can't take its cdr. It is an array whereas a list is
> a linked list.
>
> Maybe in some platonic ideal lisp there wouldn't be
> a difference ...

Indeed, this is what I think!

If a list just contains say a bunch of known integers
that don't need to be computed, is there anything that
stops this list from being stored in "contiguous
memory" with the list functions as well as the
constant access time "vector" functions available?

By the way: in my previous post strings were mentioned
and it sounded like they were sugar for lists of chars
- this isn't the case (you can't `car' a string) but
it could have been and it isn't harmful (I think) to
think of strings that way.

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