On Sun, Oct 7, 2012 at 10:02 PM, Alan Malloy <a...@malloys.org> wrote: > On Sunday, October 7, 2012 7:56:53 PM UTC-7, Ben wrote: >> >> On Sun, Oct 7, 2012 at 3:53 PM, Alan Malloy <al...@malloys.org> wrote: >> > This is nonsense. If s is fixed-size at compile-time, you would never >> > use >> > apply to begin with. Why bother with (applyn 10 + [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >> > 10]) >> > when you could just write (+ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10)? >> >> Why bother to write (+ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10) when you could just write 55? >> >> In order to write (+ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ...) you need more than just the >> length of the list, you need to know its contents as well. >> >> (let [s (take 10 (infinite-stream-of-random-integers))] (applyn 10 + s)) >> >> will work right---you know the length of s---but you're not going to >> be able to just directly apply +. > > > Of course apply will work fine.
What I meant by "directly apply +" wasn't "call apply with first argument +", but "call (+ 1 2 ...)". I was responding to your suggestion that one just write (+ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10). > All applyn does is make the argument-unpacking code happen in your clojure > source file instead of in RestFn.java, which is optimized for it, in > exchange for the extremely small cost of dispatching on length. Sure, but that's a different reason for finding applyn silly than the one you initially gave, which was that one could bypass calling apply altogether and just write (+ 1 2 ...). -- Ben Wolfson "Human kind has used its intelligence to vary the flavour of drinks, which may be sweet, aromatic, fermented or spirit-based. ... Family and social life also offer numerous other occasions to consume drinks for pleasure." [Larousse, "Drink" entry] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en
