Marshall wrote: > Joe Marshall wrote: >> Marshall wrote: >> It isn't clear to me which programs we would have to give up, either. >> I don't have much experience in sophisticated typed languages. It is >> rather easy to find programs that baffle an unsophisticated typed >> language (C, C++, Java, etc.). > > C and Java, certainly, but I'm wary these days about making > any statement about limitations on C++'s type system, for it is > subtle and quick to anger. > >> Looking back in comp.lang.lisp, I see these examples: >> >> (defun noisy-apply (f arglist) >> (format t "I am now about to apply ~s to ~s" f arglist) >> (apply f arglist)) >> >> (defun blackhole (argument) >> (declare (ignore argument)) >> #'blackhole) >> > The noisy-apply function I think I understand; it's generic on the > entire arglist. In fact, if I read it correctly, it's even generic > on the *arity* of the function, which is actually pretty impressive. > True? This is an issue I've been wrestling with in my own type > system investigations: how to address genericity across arity. > > Does noisy-apply get invoked the same way as other functions? > That would be cool. > > As to the black hole function, could you explain it a bit? I apologize > for my lisp-ignorance. I am sure there is a world of significance > in the # ' on the third line, but I have no idea what it is.
You can ignore the #'. In Scheme this as follows: (define blackhole (argument) blackhole) It just means that the function blackhole returns the function blackhole. Pascal -- 3rd European Lisp Workshop July 3 - Nantes, France - co-located with ECOOP 2006 http://lisp-ecoop06.bknr.net/ -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
