Re: add-hook

[Sebastian Tennant]

Quoth Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@gnuvola.org>:
> () Sebastian Tennant <sebyte@smolny.plus.com>
> () Thu, 07 Jun 2007 03:20:33 +0300
>
>    Perhaps someone could explain why it is lambda
>    functions don't need to be quoted in this context?
>
> in elisp, the form `(lambda ARGS BODY)' is self-quoting in
> all contexts, like numbers and strings.  sometimes you see:
>
>  (function (lambda ...))
>  #'(lambda ...)
>
> these serve as hints to the byte compiler that the form
> should be compiled.  on the other hand, if you see:
>
>  '(lambda ...)
>
> then that tells the compiler to treat the form as data (DON'T compile).
> if you aren't byte compiling, quoting is strictly optional.
>
> thi

Many thanks.

I was aware that everything boils down to lambda functions in lisp but
it hadn't occured to me that they are self quoting in all contexts,
although now I think about it I realise they _have_ to be
self-quoting, given that they are one of the fundamental building
blocks...

(info "(elisp)Anonymous Functions"):

  In Lisp, a function is a list that starts with `lambda', a byte-code
  function compiled from such a list, or alternatively a primitive
  subr-object; names are "extra."

Sebastian