Re: lisp style question

[Katalin Sinkov <lispstylist@gmail.com>]

On Dec 4, 4:05 pm, Don Geddis <d...@geddis.org> wrote:
> Katalin Sinkov <lispstyl...@gmail.com> wrote on Thu, 2 Dec 2010 :
>
> > what is "setf" and how to write it in terms of the elementary
> > functions, car/cdr/cons/quote/cond/atom/eq ?
>
> Unlike your subject line, this is no longer a "lisp style" question.

> That's fine, but before asking "style" questions, you ought to learn
> some lisp.  Get an introductory tutorial (there are good free ones
> online!), try some examples.  After you learn a bit of lisp, and can
> write simple programs, perhaps then you can come back with some style
> questions.

OK, I read the papers by McCarthy and the evaluator.

> You just don't know lisp.

Do you know lisp ? Do you even know how to fork off another thread if
that is your issue with the heading ? Also, style cannot be decoupled
from skill of language. Even if you learnt all the C, you could not
write a C++ style virtual class in it unless you had the skill. The
most you would be able to achieve would be methods with function
pointers.

> Oh, and by the way: the functions your listed are not "the elementary
> functions" (lisp has lots of functions, and there is no unique
> elementary subset); nor can SETF be written in terms of the ones you
> listed.

But you have one set provided to you on silver plate to use. Must I
provide you with all of them before you will activate your neuron and
lift your finger to explain how setf is implemented ?

HTH

>         -- Don
> ___________________________________________________________________________­____
> Don Geddis                  http://don.geddis.org/              d...@geddis.org
> You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail
> in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles.  Do you understand this?
> And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive
> them there.  The only difference is that there is no cat.
>         -- Albert Einstein, when asked to describe radio