Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "Rod Pemberton" Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth Subject: Re: Don't be a bit-twiddling monkey Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 20:55:53 -0500 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Lines: 54 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: i+Urkql2cL38hhKqzSWEjg.user.speranza.aioe.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: Opera Mail/12.16 (Linux) X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.forth:35985 On Fri, 23 Jan 2015 20:14:52 -0500, WJ wrote: > Re: Help understanding closures > > Kent M. Pitman wrote: No, he didn't. At least, not here he didn't say that. Is that even remotely a proper sentence? Sorry, I really don't even care ... >> > I believe that I understand closures conceptually. They are rather >> > simple. They are just a capture of the lexical environment in which a >> > function is created, so as to provide bindings for free variables. >> > >> > What I am confused about is the implementation of a closure. I'm >> > hoping you guys can help me out. >> >> This is a bad plan, btw. >> >> Lisp is a language which deliberately hides implementation from you >> because you are not supposed to have to know. You will not become >> a better Lisp programmer by seeking the answer to this question; >> you will become a better compiler writer, perhaps. But although >> Lisp can implement itself, one does not prove one's merit in Lisp >> by doing so. You can solve a lifetime of application problems in >> Lisp without ever knowing the answer to these questions, and there >> is indeed no single answer to the question you ask, any more than >> there is a single answer to "what internal data structure is used >> when you sort something?" or "how are the hash keys of an arbitrary >> hash table computed?" You are inquiring about something for which >> there is a lot known, and about which you can learn a lot, but it >> won't get you closer to "understanding closures", just like >> "understanding the chemistry of food additives" probably won't >> make you a better judge of whether to buy coke or pepsi for an >> upcoming party you're hosting... Apparently, this is from the third post in thread "Help understanding closures" 3/10/2003 by Justin Dubs on comp.lang.lisp. https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.lang.lisp/F7zOw-HBfZY/KvjarFOQ7cAJ Hey, WooJuice, we didn't get the "woo" because we're not on the "juice"! So, uh, why are you posting quoted replies to ANCIENT LISP threads? Are you using Google Groups? Not good. Really, not good ... Or, did you have something to say other than the subject line: "Don't be a bit-twiddling monkey" There was a conversation on closures here a while ago. You could've added this to that thread. Rod Pemberton