I had the same issue a couple of months ago. The thing to understand is that 'a is NOT a symbol. Actually, it evaluates to a symbol, which is a different thing.
When you write ^{:a 1} 'a, it is the same as writing ^{:a 1} (quote a). So the metadata gets applied to the entire form, not the symbol. When you write '^{:a 1} a, it is the same as writing (quote ^{:a 1} a). So the metadata gets applied to the symbol. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.