[Perhaps getting a bit silly here, but...]

Kent M Pitman  <pitman@world.std.com> wrote:
+---------------
|  (print '(defun foo nil nil)) 
| with no language context is going to either print
| 
|    (DEFUN FOO NIL NIL)
+---------------

Which is what CLISP prints.

+---------------
| You really want
|    (DEFUN FOO () #f)
| and that's going to be hard to achieve without some contextual knowledge.
+---------------

Well, (unlike CLISP) CMUCL actually *does* print the CL version of that!

    > (print '(defun foo nil nil)) 

    (DEFUN FOO () NIL) 
    (DEFUN FOO () NIL) 
    >

+---------------
| [You might want to check whether you can tailor the pretty-printer to 
| do the right thing.  It has, or can be made to have, just about enough 
| contextual knowledge... I think.
+---------------

I think so, too. See above.  ;-}  ;-}

+---------------
| Then again, even the pretty printer is unlikely to get
|  (cons 'nil 'nil)
| right, since this probably should print as
|  (cons 'nil '())
| and I'm not sure it's really up to knowing what kind of argument
| every function needs or wants.]
+---------------

FWIW, both CLISP & CMUCL print "(NIL)" for that.
[Or were you really asking about (quote (cons 'nil 'nil))?]


-Rob

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Rob Warnock, PP-ASEL-IA		<rpw3@rpw3.org>
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