From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Emanuel Berg Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: How to quote a list of functions? Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2015 02:29:03 +0200 Message-ID: <87oai4yvcg.fsf@nl106-137-147.student.uu.se> References: <871tfdjqjx.fsf@mbork.pl> <87zj1vddkz.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> <87mvxug2us.fsf@nl106-137-147.student.uu.se> <87vbch1gb0.fsf@nl106-137-147.student.uu.se> <87wpwudby7.fsf@nl106-137-147.student.uu.se> <87zj1qbwxs.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> <87r3n2btjl.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> <87mvxqbooi.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> <8737zhcsvo.fsf@nl106-137-147.student.uu.se> <87b6cce0-ebe6-400a-b6e9-957e79a66511@default> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1439945201 6936 80.91.229.3 (19 Aug 2015 00:46:41 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2015 00:46:41 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Aug 19 02:46:30 2015 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 1ZRrWN-0006PW-NF for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 19 Aug 2015 02:46:27 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:60122 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRrWM-00038U-Sx for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 20:46:26 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:42135) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRrW6-00036l-3U for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 20:46:11 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRrW1-0005NI-Kt for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 20:46:10 -0400 Original-Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:44613) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRrW1-0005MX-E5 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Aug 2015 20:46:05 -0400 Original-Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1ZRrHK-0001Py-Hu for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 19 Aug 2015 02:30:54 +0200 Original-Received: from nl106-137-103.student.uu.se ([130.243.137.103]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 19 Aug 2015 02:30:54 +0200 Original-Received: from embe8573 by nl106-137-103.student.uu.se with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 19 Aug 2015 02:30:54 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Mail-Followup-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-Lines: 64 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: nl106-137-103.student.uu.se Mail-Copies-To: never User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.4 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:qcT0GOhv9GG8F5U0/6ZnwmRrYxs= 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:106698 Archived-At: Drew Adams writes: >> when and why are functions refered to not using >> symbols to designate them? > > Anonymous functions. Those have been mentioned many times by now. What about them? If you mean lambdas I have used them for many years with no use of any sharp notation. > 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 OK? > 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. It is clear that functions and symbols are different things but it is not clear what you would gain by sometimes referring to functions as functions and sometimes by the symbols denoting them, and it is especially confusing as the "function as function" way of referring to them requires a special syntax compared to referring to everything else in Lisp! And this is also tedious as every time a function is refered to you have to verify with the function called what it expects - a function, or a symbol denoting a function? If I did this, I would not have any special syntax for referring to a function, much like I don't want special syntax for, say, a variable that holds an integer compared to a variable that holds a string: (format "%s, you have %d credits on you Galatica Bank account" s'greeting i'credits ) Instead, what I would do, I would change the functions to have verification of input data and act accordingly, if it received a "function function" or "function as symbol" - not that that ever matters as the symbols works just as well, which makes this even more bizarre a discussion! Nonetheless, I always want to do things the right way so I'll change my code. If I find anything apart from the three cases I've brought to the attention of this list, I'll mention those as well. -- underground experts united http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573