Re: Distinguishing `consp` and `functionp`

[Richard Stallman]

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  > But looking inside a function *value* (i.e. what is returned at run time
  > by the evaluation of `#'(lambda ...)`) with `car/cdr` is rarely
  > supported in the Lisp world.

Compiled functions have been non-transparent since the 1960s, and they
have to be.  But the kind of function which makes the core of the
concept of Lisp, the interpreted function, can indeed be analyzed that
way.

To alter that would be a major change in the philosophy of Lisp.
It would call for a powerful justification.

The argument that "some other kinds of functions already can't be
introspected, so why not break that for the core kind of function too"
is not logically valid.


-- 
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)