Re: obarray

[Juanma Barranquero <lekktu@gmail.com>]

On Sun, Dec 15, 2013 at 2:37 AM, Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> wrote:

> So it is a hash table of symbols: variables, constants,
> :keywords, functions, ...?

symbols. Symbols are primitive objects with some properties (pointer
to value and function, which can be null, a property list, etc.). Look
at the code for details

> And when you do `defvar', is the symbol name inserted
> into this data structure based on some property -
> perhaps the name itself, or type (if a "symbol" isn't
> atomic)?

As the description says, it is "intern" and "read" which do insert
("intern") symbols into the standard obarray. It is possible to use
other obarrays (that's what the OBARRAY arg of `intern' is for), or
have non-interned symbols.

> Is the value inserted as well or do they use some sort
> of pointer scheme?

As said above, the symbol object has a slot for the variable value and
another one for the function value, IIRC.

    J