From: "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com>
To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: Re: 'length' function for lists and cons cells?
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2013 21:02:59 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <87mwtrmemk.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 54eefda1-7c85-4c18-8c02-5376dde008e0@googlegroups.com
duthen.cnv@gmail.com writes:
> Considering that:
> (a b) contains 2 cons cells and 2 values (a and b),
> (a b . c) contains 2 cons cells and 3 values (a b and c),
> (a b c) contains 3 cons cells and 3 values (a b and c).
>
> So, one possible point of vue (not necessarily mine, though!)
> could consider that (a b . c) is "a little bit longer" than (a b)
> and "a little bit shorter" than (a b c)!
>
> Hence, the function:
> (defun semi-length (xs)
> (cond ((null xs) 0)
> ((atom xs) .5)
> (t (1+ (semi-length (cdr xs))))))
>
> (mapcar (lambda (x) (cons (semi-length x) x))
> '(()
> a
> (a)
> (a . b)
> (a b)
> (a b . c)
> (a b c)))
>
> ((0) (0.5 . a) (1 a) (1.5 a . b) (2 a b) (2.5 a b . c) (3 a b c))
>
> A true list is just one whith an integer semi-length
> whereas a dotted-paired list is one with a fractional semi-length ! :)
Nice. And since circular lists have a stem length and a loop length,
with the loop length >0, we can represent them as complex numbers,
perhaps something like:
(* (+ stem-length loop-length)
(expt (sqrt -1) (/ stem-length loop-length)))
--
__Pascal Bourguignon__ http://www.informatimago.com/
A bad day in () is better than a good day in {}.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2013-03-25 20:02 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 19+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2013-03-21 18:21 'length' function for lists and cons cells? Thorsten Jolitz
2013-03-21 20:02 ` Stephen Berman
2013-03-21 21:58 ` Thorsten Jolitz
2013-03-21 22:05 ` Drew Adams
[not found] ` <mailman.22591.1363903134.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2013-03-23 11:24 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2013-03-21 20:10 ` Drew Adams
2013-03-21 22:09 ` Thorsten Jolitz
[not found] ` <mailman.22588.1363896620.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2013-03-25 15:24 ` duthen.cnv
2013-03-25 20:02 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon [this message]
[not found] <mailman.22586.1363890109.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2013-03-21 20:49 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2013-03-22 2:38 ` Thorsten Jolitz
2013-03-22 7:27 ` Mark Skilbeck
2013-03-22 9:57 ` Thorsten Jolitz
[not found] ` <mailman.22632.1363946271.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2013-03-23 12:19 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2013-03-23 15:35 ` Drew Adams
[not found] ` <mailman.22706.1364052941.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2013-03-23 15:52 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2013-03-24 5:20 ` Drew Adams
[not found] ` <mailman.22618.1363919920.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2013-03-22 7:45 ` Barry Margolin
2013-03-23 11:31 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
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