From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Why don't let bound values die? Date: Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:46:59 +0200 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1283590032 23920 80.91.229.12 (4 Sep 2010 08:47:12 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2010 08:47:12 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Emacs-Devel devel To: Lennart Borgman Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Sep 04 10:47:11 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OroP0-0002nj-A8 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:47:10 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:57798 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OroOz-0004P2-MN for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 04 Sep 2010 04:47:09 -0400 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=43686 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OroOt-0004Ov-HL for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 04 Sep 2010 04:47:04 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OroOs-0005RV-2C for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 04 Sep 2010 04:47:03 -0400 Original-Received: from impaqm3.telefonica.net ([213.4.138.3]:52774) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OroOr-0005RA-Ol for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 04 Sep 2010 04:47:01 -0400 Original-Received: from IMPmailhost1.adm.correo ([10.20.102.38]) by IMPaqm3.telefonica.net with bizsmtp id 2YkC1f0060piX6q3PYn05P; Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:47:00 +0200 Original-Received: from ceviche.home ([83.61.33.16]) by IMPmailhost1.adm.correo with BIZ IMP id 2Ymz1f0050LsqWj1hYmzSM; Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:47:00 +0200 X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAA== X-TE-authinfo: authemail="monnier$movistar.es" |auth_email="monnier@movistar.es" X-TE-AcuTerraCos: auth_cuTerraCos="cosuitnetc01" Original-Received: by ceviche.home (Postfix, from userid 20848) id 67240661B8; Sat, 4 Sep 2010 10:46:59 +0200 (CEST) In-Reply-To: (Lennart Borgman's message of "Sat, 4 Sep 2010 00:20:24 +0200") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.0.50 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:129669 Archived-At: > I think I still do not know exactly what an uninterned symbol is, but > I guess it is something that can not be looked up, just somehow > accessed directly. But it still has a name and I wonder why. Fundamentally symbols are just special kinds of immutable strings. Obarrays then are special kinds of hash-tables which only map strings to symbols (whose name has to be the specified string). A symbol may be placed in only one obarray at any given time (because of details of the way the obarray-hash-tables are implemented, where the linked list slots of each hash-bucket are actually stored directly in the symbol themselves). Stefan