Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!clyde.concordia.ca!mcgill-vision!bloom-beacon!eru!luth!sunic!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!aiai!jeff
From: jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: Correct LisP (was Re: in defense of C)
Message-ID: <2035@skye.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 14 Mar 90 15:22:23 GMT
References: <1942@skye.ed.ac.uk> <14236@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> <12572711825024@AIDA.CSD.UU.SE> <1990Mar12.104518.1412@hellgate.utah.edu> <2452@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca>
Reply-To: jeff@aiai.UUCP (Jeff Dalton)
Organization: AIAI, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Lines: 8

In article <2452@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca> utility@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca (Ronald BODKIN) writes:
>However, the author of Anatomy of Lisp, makes a good point that if you
>are trying to deal with abstract things (e.g. lists) then don't "pun"
>and say "its really just a ..."

One certainly shouldn't use CAR and CDR for some abstractions, but
why not use them on lists?  When would you actually allow me to use
CAR and CDR?