Lisp: list notation

• Rationale: too many parentheses in s-exp, list notation simplify the format 
• Definition: A list is a sequence of either atoms or other lists separated by blanks and enclosed in parentheses.
• Can be used to create expressions and data structures.

e.g. Representing 40, 10, 50, 20, 30.

• s-exp:
•  
• list-notation: 

        (40 10 50 20 30) = (40 . (10 . (50 . (20 . (30 . NIL)))))

        ** list notation is essentially a linked list

Format

1. Can have 0 or more element, i.e. empty list; NIL = () -- note that an empty list is both an atom and a list.  
2. List items can be atoms, non-atoms, or even lists,

        e.g. ((40 . 10) (50 . 20) 30) or ((40 10) (50 . 20) (70 60) 30) are both legal

Functions

• Written in a list notation
• First item of the list is the function name
• Remaining items of the list are function params

e.g. (f x y) in lisp is equivalent to f(x,y) in other languages

read-eval-print

1. Lisp read list from user input
2. Evaluate the function with the arguments
   1. Evaluate arguments
   2. Apply result to function
   3. Do it recursively until all functions evaluated
3. Print the result to the interpreter console
4. Loop back to step 1

Math expressions are also examples of functions: 

Math Expressions

(* 7 9) = 7 x 9 = 63

(– (+ 3 4) 7) = 3+4-7 = 0

read-eval-print

1. Lisp read expressions from user input
2. Evaluate the expression
3. Print the result to the interpreter console
4. Loop back to step 1

Lisp evaluates everything

• An expression -- return expression result
• Number (e.g. 5) -- return the number, i.e. 5
• Bounded symbol (x) -- return value bounded to that symbol
• Unbounded symbol (x) -- return error, because the symbol cannot be evaluated

Native functions

• list: takes any number of arguments and constructs a list of those elements
• nth: takes a number and a list as arguments and return the indicated element of the list

> (list 1 2 3 4 5)
(1 2 3 4 5)

> (nth 2 (list 1 2 3 4 5))
3