Subject: Re: EVAL Implementations
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no>
Date: 1996/08/17
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3049265442030697@arcana.naggum.no>


Tim Chippington Derrick asks for *good* reasons why `eval' does not access
the lexical environment of the calling function.  I think it would be
illuminating to think of what it would take to actually access it.  hint:
`eval' is a normal function call, and lexical environments are not passed
in functions calls -- that's _the_ point.

Tim also says that it "does sort of feel counterintuitive".  I have had
many occasions to upgrade my intuition when working with Lisp.  once, I
comforted a friend who was very frustrated with `eval-when', and said that
it becomes intuitive only when it has ceased to be an impenetrable mystery.

#\Erik