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Re: eval-when-compile
From: |
PJ Weisberg |
Subject: |
Re: eval-when-compile |
Date: |
Sat, 28 Jul 2012 11:04:55 -0700 |
On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 10:50 AM, Achim Gratz <address@hidden> wrote:
> Pascal J. Bourguignon writes:
>> C-h f eval-when-compile RET
>>
>> Like `progn', but evaluates the body at compile time if you're compiling.
>> Thus, the result of the body appears to the compiler as a quoted
>> constant.
>> In interpreted code, this is entirely equivalent to `progn'.
>>
>> What more can I add?
>
> I read that. It doesn't seem to work that way or has some strings
> attached that aren't obvious to me from the documentation.
>
>> The above source will evaluate, when you compile the file:
>>
>> (defvar unquoted-t "true")
>> '(defvar quoted-nil "false")
>
> No. They will evaluate to
>
> unquoted-t
> (defvar quoted-nil "false")
>
> The unquoted variant was only there to check if maybe there's another
> `(quote …)´ snuck in. I expected the defvar form to compile, but it
> doesn't.
You missed this part:
Thus, the result of the body appears to the compiler as a quoted constant.
So they really evaluate to:
'unquoted-t
'(defvar quoted-nil "false")
Which of course does nothing, so the compiler optimizes it away.
You know what you could do?
---
(eval
(eval-when-compile
(if nil
'(defvar quoted-t "true")
'(defvar quoted-nil "false")))
---
That'll compile to:
---
(eval
'(defvar quoted-nil "false"))
---
-PJ
Gehm's Corollary to Clark's Law: Any technology distinguishable from
magic is insufficiently advanced.