Re: Sharp--quote [was: url-retrieve fails on most HTTPS sites]

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

>> > Plus lots of other optimizations the compiler can do if it knows
>> > that it's the function value you are talking about.
>> Yeah, you have an example of this?
> I think Stefan is in a far better position to answer that.

AFAIK there is no optimization that applies specifically to #'foo :-(

There's really not much opportunity for optimization there, since all it
says is "use the function found in the `symbol-function` slot *at the time
we actually call it*".  But whatever we know about the content of
`symbol-value` during compilation may not hold anymore by the time the
code is executed.

So the differences w.r.t 'foo are limited to:
- Tell the *human reader* that the intention here is to refer to
  a function of that name.
- Get a warning from the compiler if the function doesn't seem to exist.
- Plus the special case of `cl-flet` and `cl-labels` where the #' is
  needed to refer to the locally-defined function.


        Stefan