From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Michael Heerdegen Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: obarray Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2013 05:47:47 +0100 Message-ID: <87mwk2d8jw.fsf@web.de> References: <87haabq6gl.fsf@nl106-137-194.student.uu.se> <87bo0irj13.fsf@nl106-137-194.student.uu.se> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1387082903 1502 80.91.229.3 (15 Dec 2013 04:48:23 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2013 04:48:23 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Dec 15 05:48:28 2013 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Vs3cx-0000Lc-G8 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 15 Dec 2013 05:48:27 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:49676 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Vs3cw-0002aa-UV for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 14 Dec 2013 23:48:26 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:50555) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Vs3cg-0002aB-Mb for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 14 Dec 2013 23:48:18 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Vs3cZ-0007jH-DG for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 14 Dec 2013 23:48:10 -0500 Original-Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:33002) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Vs3cZ-0007jD-6d for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sat, 14 Dec 2013 23:48:03 -0500 Original-Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Vs3cW-00008v-58 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sun, 15 Dec 2013 05:48:00 +0100 Original-Received: from ip-90-186-77-134.web.vodafone.de ([90.186.77.134]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sun, 15 Dec 2013 05:48:00 +0100 Original-Received: from michael_heerdegen by ip-90-186-77-134.web.vodafone.de with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sun, 15 Dec 2013 05:48:00 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 26 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: ip-90-186-77-134.web.vodafone.de User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3.50 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:TdKcZU6xibR6/GMaY/6Sq68Nhxk= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 80.91.229.3 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:95002 Archived-At: Barry Margolin writes: > Values are unrelated to whether a symbol is in the obarray. An > uninterned symbol can have a value. > > (setq uninterned-symbol (make-symbol "foo")) > (setf (symbol-value uninterned-symbol) 'bar) The last line easier without cl'ish setf: (set uninterned-symbol 'bar) > This symbol "foo" won't be in the obarray, but it still has a value. And to answer the next question: "What are uninterned symbols good for"? They are useful especially when writing macros, as a way to avoid collisions with already used symbols. But that doesn't matter here. All that need to know is that obarray is a thing that holds all essential symbols (variables), and that it is a valid COLLECTION argument for `completing-read'. Regards, Michael.