Info Catalog eintr: Preface eintr: Top eintr: Practicing Evaluation

eintr: List Processing

 
 1 List Processing
 *****************
 
 To the untutored eye, Lisp is a strange programming language.  In Lisp
 code there are parentheses everywhere.  Some people even claim that the
 name stands for “Lots of Isolated Silly Parentheses”.  But the claim is
 unwarranted.  Lisp stands for LISt Processing, and the programming
 language handles _lists_ (and lists of lists) by putting them between
 parentheses.  The parentheses mark the boundaries of the list.
 Sometimes a list is preceded by an apostrophe ‘'’, called a
 “single-quote” in Lisp.(1)  Lists are the basis of Lisp.
 

Menu

 
· Lisp Lists                  What are lists?
· Run a Program               Any list in Lisp is a program ready to run.
· Making Errors               Generating an error message.
· Names & Definitions         Names of symbols and function definitions.
· Lisp Interpreter            What the Lisp interpreter does.
· Evaluation                  Running a program.
· Variables                   Returning a value from a variable.
· Arguments                   Passing information to a function.
· set & setq                  Setting the value of a variable.
· Summary                     The major points.
· Error Message Exercises
 
    ---------- Footnotes ----------
 
    (1) A single-quote is an abbreviation for the special form ‘quote’;
 you need not think about special forms now.  Complications.
 

Info Catalog eintr: Preface eintr: Top eintr: Practicing Evaluation