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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!oliveb!Glacier!bhayes
From: bhayes@Glacier.ARPA (Barry Hayes)
Newsgroups: net.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: A BNF for Lisp
Message-ID: <1519@Glacier.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 21-Nov-85 15:13:08 EST
Article-I.D.: Glacier.1519
Posted: Thu Nov 21 15:13:08 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 23-Nov-85 06:14:13 EST
References: <60@aquila.UUCP> <68@nbs-amrf.UUCP> <63@aquila.UUCP>
Reply-To: bhayes@Glacier.UUCP (Barry Hayes)
Organization: Stanford University, IC Laboratory
Lines: 25

In article <63@aquila.UUCP> chris@aquila.UUCP () writes:
>I never though a BNF for Lisp would generate so much Net traffic!
>As some people have commented, the grammar I posted cannot handle
>S-expressions of the form ( a . b . c ) -- changes were posted to do this.
...
>		Chris Retterath ( ..!dciem!aquila!chris )
>		Consensys Corporation.

Okay, boys and girls.  I noticed this before, and at risk of getting
my ankle firmly between my molars...
What the hell does "( a . b . c )" mean?  I quote from "Common Lisp",
(c) 1984 by Digital Press, by that Steele guy:
[Quote begins, page 26, section 2.4]
A dotted list is one whose last cons does not have a nil for its
cdr, rather some other data object (which is not a cons, or the
first-mentioned cons would not be the last cons of the list.)
Such a list is called "dotted" because of the special notation
used for it: the elements of the list are written between
parentheses as before, but after the last element and before
the right parenthesis are written a dot (surrounded by blank space)
and then the cdr of the last cons.
[Back to you, Robin.]

Alrighty, then, wizzbangers, just what DOES "(a . b . c)" mean?
 -Barry "Insert toes, jump forward" Hayes