Re: Output an alist from a function

[Heime <heimeborgia@protonmail.com>]

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On Thursday, September 26th, 2024 at 9:01 PM, tomas@tuxteam.de <tomas@tuxteam.de> wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 26, 2024 at 08:23:02AM +0000, Heime wrote:
> 
> > Sent with Proton Mail secure email.
> > 
> > On Thursday, September 26th, 2024 at 4:43 PM, tomas@tuxteam.de tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
> > 
> > > On Wed, Sep 25, 2024 at 08:30:30PM +0000, Heime wrote:
> 
> 
> [...]
> 
> > For what I am doing, the problem is not acute and with your suggestion
> > towards mapc, I made
> > 
> > ;; Initialize an empty alist to hold output
> > (let ( (output-alist '()) )
> > ;; `mapc' iterates over an alist in a manner similar to how ;;` maphash' processes a hash table.
> > (mapc (lambda (entry)
> > (let ( (waypt (car entry))
> > (dir-path (cdr entry)) )
> > ;; Push the result to the front of the output alist
> > (push (cons waypt (not (file-directory-p dir-path)))
> > output-alist)))
> > fpln)
> > ;; Reverse the list to maintain the original order
> > (reverse output-alist)))
> 
> 
> If all you need is to print a formatted rendering of the alist/hash,
> perhaps you can skip the generation of an intermediate data structure?
> 
> (I don't know what your greater plan is, so perhaps that musing is
> irrelevant)

My goal is to explore different approaches to deepen my understanding of 
various macros and their behavior.  Implementing multiple versions of the same 
functionality to serve as valuable exercises in grasping the nuances of these 
constructs. While generating an intermediate data structure may not be strictly 
necessary for outputting a formatted rendering, this experimentation should  
solidify my understanding of how these tools can be applied in different 
contexts.
 
> > > You'll always have inconsistencies. Removing them is an ongoing process
> > > which happens very carefully, and is in a steady state wrt introducing
> > > new ones.
> > > 
> > > At this stage, the evolution resembles that of human languages (which
> > > do have their sets of inconsistencies).
> > 
> > It is as Guy Steele used to describe a programming language. I attended one
> > of his speeches.
> 
> 
> After all, programming languages are also human languages, with all their
> cultural traits, tribalities, identity facets, yadda, yadda. Had I the
> choice today, I'd study programming language anthropology.

Have worked with Leslie Lamport (Turing Award Winner 2013 by the ACM) and he 
has shown how the Temporal Logic of Actions is superior to human languages, 
and even to mathematics itself.
 
> Cheers
> --
> t