From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: florian@fsavigny.de (Florian v. Savigny) Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: About `defun' in elisp manual Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2012 09:49:22 -0500 Message-ID: References: <20121228155038.428337ff9d793ad357031ec1@gmail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1356706170 23802 80.91.229.3 (28 Dec 2012 14:49:30 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2012 14:49:30 +0000 (UTC) Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org To: Xue Fuqiao Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Dec 28 15:49:45 2012 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 1TobFp-0003pH-7i for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 28 Dec 2012 15:49:45 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:47940 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TobFa-000416-IN for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 28 Dec 2012 09:49:30 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:39489) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TobFS-00040e-74 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 28 Dec 2012 09:49:25 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TobFO-0004ST-Qk for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 28 Dec 2012 09:49:22 -0500 Original-Received: from srv4.ns-domain-hosting.de ([178.63.89.203]:57282) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TobFO-0004S9-EH for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 28 Dec 2012 09:49:18 -0500 X-No-Relay: not in my network X-No-Relay: not in my network Original-Received: from bertrandrussell.Speedport_W_723V_1_26_000 (p4FECD27D.dip.t-dialin.net [79.236.210.125]) by srv4.ns-domain-hosting.de (Postfix) with ESMTPA id 3DF1B15DC002; Fri, 28 Dec 2012 15:49:15 +0100 (CET) In-reply-to: <20121228155038.428337ff9d793ad357031ec1@gmail.com> (message from Xue Fuqiao on Fri, 28 Dec 2012 15:50:38 +0800) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6.x X-Received-From: 178.63.89.203 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:88333 Archived-At: I'm not an expert, but it would seem to me that by "dotted list", you mean a cons cell, and if BODY-FORMS is a list, the two are the same. Try evaluating the following expression in your *scratch* buffer: '(foo . (bar . (fubar . (baz)))) You should get a simple list of the four elements. Elisp builds lists out of cons cells, which is explained in the Elisp Manual, Section 5.1. (However, there is no more ASCII art, which I think is a shame.) This is also the reason why the following expression are equivalent: (nth 0 my-list) (car my-list) (I'm not sure why Elisp builds lists that way, since this is not too intuitive, but I suspect it has something to do with the very limited technological possibilities at the time when Emacs was first written.) I hope I'm not completely wrong, and that this sheds some light on the matter. (Otherwise, I'll keep quiet in the future.) Best regards, Florian