Thanks Alex. I didn't know about picolisp's tolerance for nested symbols. Is there a reason you chose this? Like, it lets you write some cool code, or it makes the language more robust?
On Tue, Dec 27, 2016 at 10:15 AM, Alexander Burger <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > while talking about 'set' and 'setq', let me clarify another issue. Quite > often > I see here - or in IRC - expressions like > > (mapc 'set '(A B C) (1 2 3)) > > or > > (mapcar 'inc (4 5 6)) > > While this certainly works, it is actually wrong, or at least unnecessary. > > > The mapping functions want a *functional* first argument. If you look up > in the > reference (under "Evaluation", doc/ref.html#ev), it says that a function is > either a number (a function pointer) or a cell (with parameter(s) in the > CAR and > a 'prg' body in the CDR). > > However, the above expressions pass a *symbol* to the mapping functions. > So just > > (mapc set '(A B C) (1 2 3)) > or > (mapcar inc (4 5 6)) > > would be fine, because the first arguments are evaluated, resulting in > proper > numbers. > > > The quoted calls (resulting in symbols) happen to work just due to a lucky > coincidence: > > When PicoLisp evaluates a function call, it tries to be tolerant. Instead > of > throwing an error when hitting a symbol, it *evaluates* that symbol (or any > expressions in general which show up, until it gets to a proper function. > For > example > > (de square (N) > (* N N) ) > > (setq > F 'square ) > L '(line square circle) ) > > : (F 7) > -> 49 > > : ((cadr L) 7) > -> 49 > > : ((val (cadr L)) 7) > -> 49 > > > One more note: In case of *message* calls on objects you *must* pass a > symbol. > They need a symbol to locate the right method in the class hierarchy > > (mapc 'lose> (collect 'key '+Cls)) > > so here the quote is correct. > > - Alex > -- > UNSUBSCRIBE: mailto:[email protected]?subject=Unsubscribe >
