Re: list in Beginning Student

On Oct 1, 2011, at 8:33 AM, "Todd O'Bryan" <toddobryan@...> wrote:

> I actually wish it weren't in there. One student discovers it, and
> lots of students start using list instead of cons ... empty.

OTOH, once I DO introduce it, it's really nice to be able to write
(cons 1 (cons 2 (cons 3 empty)))
and
(list 1 2 3)
and see that they produce the exact same thing -- in other words, they're two different input syntaxes that
mean the same.  Then switch languages to BSLLA and type the same two expressions again: they still come out
the same, but the way they both come out is different from before -- in other words, they're two different
output syntaxes that mean the same, too.

Stephen Bloch
sbloch@...