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From: lgm@cbnewsc.att.com (lawrence.g.mayka)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: Dumb Common Lisp question
Message-ID: <1990Jun29.133818.11549@cbnewsc.att.com>
Date: 29 Jun 90 13:38:18 GMT
References: <4204@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
Distribution: usa
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 20

In article <4204@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> brian@granite.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Brian of ASTD-CP) writes:
>I have one pressing question about CL.  What is the rationale
>behind the (function ...) or #' construct?  It seems in some
>places you need to say #'foo, say in an apply, and in other
>places you just say foo, as in (foo 1 2 3).  Thus it seems to
>be the programmer's job to remember when "the function itself"
>and "the name of the function" are needed by CL.

This issue is discussed in considerable detail in Volume 1, Number
1, of the journal "Lisp and Symbolic Computation," published by
Kluwer Academic Publishers, in a paper authored by Richard Gabriel
and Kent Pitman and entitled, "Endpaper:  Technical Issues of
Separation in Function Cells and Value Cells."


	Lawrence G. Mayka
	AT&T Bell Laboratories
	lgm@iexist.att.com

Standard disclaimer.