Re: Structured data in Emacs Lisp

[Phillip Lord]

>>>>> "Christopher" == Christopher C Stacy <cstacy@news.dtpq.com> writes:

  Christopher> PT <mailshield.gg@mailnull.com> writes:

  >> For example, from a function I want to return three values.  How
  >> should I do this?

  >> Using a list? (Value1 Value2 Value3)?

  >> Or maybe an association list? '((value1 . 3) (value2 . 4) (value3
  >> . 5))

  >> Or is there an other Lispish way to handle structured data I
  >> don't know about?

  Christopher> This isn't going to help with your Emacs problem, but
  Christopher> just so you know: Emacs Lisp is a very simple kind of
  Christopher> Lisp, lacking many features present in most modern
  Christopher> (post-1979) dialects of Lisp.  For example, in ANSI
  Christopher> Common Lisp, you can directly pass mutiple values
  Christopher> around without packing them into some kind of
  Christopher> container.  And for representing structured data, you
  Christopher> can use either structs or object-oriented
  Christopher> programming. There are of course many other data types
  Christopher> and a zillion other important features in "real" Lisp
  Christopher> that Emacs Lisp doesn't have.  I'm telling you this
  Christopher> because you asked for a "Lispy" way to do things.

  Christopher> I think the "CL" library in Emacs Lisp might give you
  Christopher> some version of DEFSTRUCT, which is something like the
  Christopher> one in Common Lisp.

Much of what you say about emacs lisp is true. But it is worth
mentioning that you can do all three of the things you mention
here. Multiple values you can pass around with the :construct, structs
with CL and classes with eieio (which is not a standard part of
emacs).

Phil