Re: Run terminal command with output in current buffer

[Stefan Monnier]

Emanuel Berg via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor [2021-07-19 02:42:44] 
wrote:
> Stefan Monnier via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor wrote:
>> Only use `setq` when you really want that variable to
>> contain different values at different times.
> How do you do it when you compute a value as part of a loop?

AFAICT in your case you do want the variable(s) to contain different values
at different times.

> We just saw it with binary-search, so let's use that as example. OK,
> so they use `setf', not `setq' (set function, not set function
> quote - ?)

`setf` and `setq` are basically the same thing here.

BTW, if you really do want to avoid `setq` (and hence `setf` as well),
you can of course do it, using recursion:

    (defun binary-search (value array)
      (cl-labels ((loop (low high)
                    (let ((middle (floor (+ low high) 2)))
                      (cond ((> (aref array middle) value)
                             (loop low (1- middle)))
                            ((< (aref array middle) value)
                             (loop (1+ middle) high))
                            (t (cl-return middle))))))
        (loop 0 (1- (length array)))))


-- Stefan