Re: plist-put modification by side effect

[Andreas Politz]

Thien-Thi Nguyen wrote:
> () Dan Davison <davison@stats.ox.ac.uk>
> () Sun, 1 Feb 2009 11:23:14 -0500
>
>    So if I've understood this then I think the docstring is inaccurate
>    since `The PLIST is modified by side effects.' is not necessarily
>    true.
>
> When something is consed onto the head of a list, the list is not modified.
>
> thi

I believe the whole term 'side effect' is a lisp heritage, where it marks a
destructive function, one which _may_ modify it's arguments.
In constrast to 'functional functions' like append etc. So the emphasis is
on 'altering it's argument' and not on 'dont' bother with the return value'.

-ap