Subject: Re: Help wiht LISP Function (Newbie) From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 14:39:01 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3213009540532611@naggum.net> * Kent M Pitman <pitman@world.std.com> | Actually, for a function that takes an &REST argument, ESPECIALLY one that | takes a SINGLE &REST argument, it seems to me that APPLY should have been | defined to exceed CALL-ARGUMENTS-LIMIT since the list should just be directly | bindable to the rest variable. I don't see spreading it onto the stack and | then re-composing it to a list. This is only possible in a context where the compiler knows enough about the called function when it prepares the call to utilize this information. To make this generally available functionality would mean that apply would have to ask (the system about) the function whether it would like the arguments spread or not, but the function must also be prepared to accept individual arguments since that would be what a normal function call would have to provide, unless it went through a more expensive function call trampoline or something. /// -- Norway is now run by a priest from the fundamentalist Christian People's Party, the fifth largest party representing one eighth of the electorate. -- The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers. -- Richard Hamming