> > Hi Tom, > > maybe you can educate me: I have never understood what the "#" does > in code like the one you have here. You are using it, so maybe you > know? > > - Carsten > >
Here, it's #' that it of interest, not # alone. At the most direct level, it quotes the symbol with `function' instead of `quote'. For example: (format "%s" ' 'foo) => "(quote foo)" (format "%s" ' #'foo) => "(function foo)" What it accomplishes: * In some contexts, it is needed to get a symbol's function binding instead of its value binding. * It alerts the byte-compiler that it's seeing a function, so it can perform certain optimizations (I don't know offhand exactly what). * Stylistically, it alerts the reader. It's an imitation of Common Lisp's reader macro #' which does sort of the same thing. At the syntax level, it's really a combination of # which signals a reader macro - though in emacs, it's all hard-coded and inextensible - and ' which stands for the function-quote reader macro. FWIW, what I added to lread.c was an extension of the reader macro facility at RMS' request, so you definitely asked the right guy. Tom Breton (Tehom) _______________________________________________ Emacs-orgmode mailing list Remember: use `Reply All' to send replies to the list. Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode
