From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Oliver Scholz Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: What does the coding system nil mean? Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 15:44:13 +0100 Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1075214916 26340 80.91.224.253 (27 Jan 2004 14:48:36 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 14:48:36 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Jan 27 15:48:32 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1AlUW0-0002fJ-00 for ; Tue, 27 Jan 2004 15:48:32 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1AlUUT-0001oF-6L for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 27 Jan 2004 09:46:57 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!dialin-145-254-183-104.arcor-ip.NET!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 38 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: dialin-145-254-183-104.arcor-ip.net (145.254.183.104) Original-X-Trace: news.uni-berlin.de 1075214698 26002124 145.254.183.104 ([87814]) X-Attribution: os X-Face: "HgH2sgK|bfH$; PiOJI6|qUCf.ve<51_Od(%ynHr?=>znn#~#oS>",F%B8&\vus),2AsPYb -n>PgddtGEn}s7kH?7kH{P_~vu?]OvVN^qD(L)>G^gDCl(U9n{:d>'DkilN!_K"eNzjrtI4Ya6; Td% IZGMbJ{lawG+'J>QXPZD&TwWU@^~A}f^zAb[Ru;CT(UA]c& User-Agent: Gnus/5.1002 (Gnus v5.10.2) Emacs/22.0.0 (windows-nt) Cancel-Lock: sha1:bsKfwrvDjwvCimp8w6sQfsK1VUrDqTzDiMOVw5nDqQ== Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:120465 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:16411 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:16411 Jesper Harder writes: > Eli Zaretskii writes: > [...] >> IMHO, it's no more odd than this: >> >> M-: (listp nil) RET => t > > I would find it a lot more odd if (listp ()) did not return t -- nil > is the empty list, after all. Well ... (and (eq nil '()) (symbolp '()) (listp '()) (atom '()) (not '())) [Not to mention (car nil) => nil.] It's funny that nil never seems to stop being fodder for an argument ... In Emacs Lisp nil/'() is some sort of a Trickster deity in the pantheon of data types. Personally I like this a lot and I find it very convenient. YMMV, of course. Yet, IMO this “overloading” just emphasizes the fact that lists are a prominent data type. Hmm … actually C with its NULL/0 isn't so much different here. Oliver -- 8 Pluviôse an 212 de la Révolution Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité!