Re: Documentation for car and cdr

[Luc Teirlinck]

Peter Whaite wrote:

   > Your wording suggests that a cons cell and a list are different
   > things, but a cons  cell.

   Not sure what your intent here is, but a list and a cons cell are
   different.  A list is a structure made from cons cells and atoms.
   A cons cell is, er, a cons cell.

I am not sure what Lisp dialect you have in mind, but both in Elisp
and in Common Lisp, a list is a Lisp object that is either a cons cell
or the symbol nil and "cons cell" is synonymous with non-nil list.

>From `(elisp)List-related Predicates':

 -- Function: listp object
     This function returns `t' if OBJECT is a cons cell or `nil'.
     Otherwise, it returns `nil'.

The Common Lisp function `listp' behaves the same way.

Sincerely,

Luc.