From: David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>
To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Creating a list
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:57:17 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <87y6m2ipmq.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 873a4afyi0.fsf@Traian.DecebalComp
Cecil Westerhof <Cecil@decebal.nl> writes:
> David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:
>
>>>>> At the moment I create a list with:
>>>>> (setq ret-val (cons total-amount (cons current-amount ())))
>>>>> I thought about doing it with:
>>>>> (setq ret-val (cons total-amount '(current-amount)))
>>>>>
>>>>> But then the second value is the string current-amount
>>>>
>>>> Wrong. The _symbol_ current-amount.
>>>
>>> When evaluating I got:
>>> (1570378.2570192777 current-amount)
>>> That is why I thought I got the string.
>>
>> A string would have quote marks around it.
>
> Off course.
>
> But I have a few questions on my mind.
> - Why is the first shown as value and the second as _symbol_?
Because you quoted the entire list containing the second value.
> - current-amount is a local variable. How is it possible that the symbol
> is still defined?
I really recommend that you read a Lisp introduction. Your questions
are very very basic.
A symbol, like a plain unquoted list, _is_ a valid expression all by
itself. In the context of evaluation, a further interpretation tries
going from there (fetching a symbol's value, calling the first element
of a list as a function on the rest). But whether or not you can
usefully call eval on it, either are printable and useful expressions.
--
David Kastrup
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2009-11-19 13:57 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 12+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2009-11-19 7:38 Creating a list Cecil Westerhof
2009-11-19 8:35 ` David Kastrup
2009-11-19 10:59 ` Cecil Westerhof
2009-11-19 11:41 ` David Kastrup
2009-11-19 13:13 ` Cecil Westerhof
2009-11-19 13:47 ` Barry Margolin
2009-11-19 15:11 ` Cecil Westerhof
2009-11-19 19:26 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2009-11-19 13:57 ` David Kastrup [this message]
2009-11-19 15:14 ` Cecil Westerhof
2009-11-19 13:59 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2009-11-19 11:59 ` Gnus: Some new mails are automatically marked as 'O' Wang Lei
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