Re: obarray

[Barry Margolin]

In article <87wqj6pva0.fsf@nl106-137-194.student.uu.se>,
 Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> wrote:

> Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu> writes:
> 
> > Values are unrelated to whether a symbol is in the
> > obarray. An uninterned symbol can have a value.
> 
> OK.
> 
> > (setq uninterned-symbol (make-symbol "foo"))
> > (setf (symbol-value uninterned-symbol) 'bar)
> 
> That looks backward. It looks like you are setting the
> value (i.e. data) to 'bar. But `symbol-value' returns
> not only the data for practical purposes, but the
> *place* of the data (and those are the same)?
> 
> > This symbol "foo" won't be in the obarray, but it
> > still has a value.
> 
> To me, with the defun I wrote in the beginning of this
> thread, I *do* get uninterned-symbol, and that should
> only look in obarray - also, the value seems to be not
> 'bar, but "foo" (?).

uninterned-symbol is an interned symbol. Its *value* is the symbol foo, 
which is not interned; foo shouldn't show up in the function you wrote 
earlier in the thread; unless you happen to have interned some other 
symbol by that name -- it would probably be clearer if I'd done:

(setq uninterned-symbol (make-symbol "something-you-have-never-typed"))

Now try your function and see if something-you-have-never-typed shows up.

The value of the symbol something-you-have-never-typed would then be bar.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
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