In article <··········@news2.delphi.com> ··········@bix.com (Jeffrey McArthur) writes:
--> Remember (a b) is actually (a . (b . nil))
-->
--> So 'a is the CAR of (a b) and 'b is the CADR or (CAR (CDR (a b)). In the
--> case of (a . b) 'a is the CAR, and the CDR is 'b. But the CADR of (a . b)
--> is nil. {The CAR of an atom is nil.}
-->
--> I think I did pretty good for someone who hasn't seriously looked at lisp
--> is around 10 years.
almost, but not quite.
CLtL 2, page 411:
car <it> list </it> function
[...] list must satisfy the predicate listp. [...]
therefore the car of an atom is NOT nil.
Steele goes on to not say anything about signalling an error, though.
-- clint