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From: bruce@liverpool.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Scheme requires '() to be a true value (was Re: GNU Extension 
 Lang.)
In-Reply-To: bwarsaw@cnri.reston.va.us's message of 26 Oct 1994 17:48:19 GMT
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>>>>> "BAW" == Barry A Warsaw <bwarsaw@cnri.reston.va.us> writes:

>>>>> "bruce" == bruce  <bruce@liverpool.ac.uk> writes:
bruce> Emacs lisp programs really do use the same symbol for values
bruce> and functions, and certainly use nil to represent false.

bruce> From the comments of several people, it looks as though some of
bruce> these decisions are mistakes: the emacs lisp code should be
bruce> changed.

> Ha!  Do you know how much elisp that will break?  I can't imagine
> this ever happening.

Not much, I hope.  I was thinking of the rather minimal symbols being
used as both functions and variables thing---now that *is* used in
elisp, but I'd guess it's not used all that much.  Perhaps it can even
be done automatically.

I can't even imagine how to catch '() being used instead of #f.  That
seems quite tricky.

-- 
Bruce                   Institute of Advanced Scientific Computation
bruce@liverpool.ac.uk   University of Liverpool

