[clisp-list] Re: bug report

[Kaz K. <ka...@as...>]

On Tue, 17 Sep 2002, Fuliang Weng (RTC) wrote:

> Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 10:13:59 -0500
> From: "Fuliang Weng (RTC)" <wg...@rt...>
> To: John K. Hinsdale <hi...@al...>
> Cc: cli...@li...,
>      Fuliang Weng <ful...@rt...>
> Subject: Re: [clisp-list] bug report
> 
> Ok, I am more interested in getting the normal interpretation for the 
> tasks I am doing.
> For example, when a function reads in a sentence represented in a list 
> (he said it does not function well) and then print it out, and you will 
> see (he said it does not . #'well). That's not just a displaying problem;)

That is funny.  But it *is* just a displaying problem. The above notation
is equivalent to:

    (he said it does not . (function well))

which is equivalent to

    (he said it does not function well)

It's just confusing to a human, that is all. :)

> I would like to hear any neat and clean solutions to this (not just 
> treat a sentence as a string). Thanks.

The neat solution is not to employ symbols from the COMMON-LISP package
for your own use.  If you are reading symbolic data from a file or user
interface, use your own package!

[14]> (defpackage :fuliang)
#<PACKAGE FULIANG>
[15]> (in-package :fuliang)
#<PACKAGE FULIANG>
FULIANG[16]> '(he said it does not function well)
(HE SAID IT DOES NOT . #'WELL)
FULIANG[17]> (shadow :function)
T
FULIANG[18]> '(he said it does not function well)
(HE SAID IT DOES NOT FUNCTION WELL)