Re: space leak from `values'

[storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm)]

Miles Bader <miles@lsi.nec.co.jp> writes:

> storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) writes:
> > + DEFUN ("setnthcdr", Fsetnthcdr, Ssetnthcdr, 2, 3, 0,
> > +        doc: /* Set cdr of Nth element of LIST to VALUE (nil if omitted), returns the result.
> 
> What's wrong with (setcdr (nthcdr (1- N) LIST) VALUE) ?

Read the third line of the doc string:

> If list has less than N elements, do not modify list.

Your suggestion fails if N is less than the length of the list:

(let ((list '(1 2 3 4))
      (n 10)     
      (value nil))
  (setcdr (nthcdr (1- n) list) value))

With (my version of) setnthcdr you replace
    (if (> (length kill-ring) kill-ring-max)
	(setcdr (nthcdr (1- kill-ring-max) kill-ring) nil)))
by
    (setnthcdr kill-ring-max kill-ring)

And besides, I need this at the C level (but I can of course
write the necessary code in-line).


BTW, my first idea was to call this function `chop' so that (chop N
LIST) would simply truncate LIST to a maximum of N elements -- but
then I realized that setnthcdr with the optional VALUE arg would be
more generic (and potentially more useful).

-- 
Kim F. Storm <storm@cua.dk> http://www.cua.dk