 if another data-structure would be
introduced, to break uniformity. That is why Clojure doesn't have "that feel"
which Arc or Scheme or a subset of CL has.)

~~~
mwfogleman
Clojure was my first programming language. I've been playing around with a
language with pointers recently, and I wonder if you could explain to me what
you mean about "symbols which are natural pointers."

More generally, I don't think I understand yet why someone would use pointers
instead of a variable.

Thanks for your comment about Lisp.

~~~
drcomputer
In lisp, think of symbols as things that represent other things. Instead of
having to evaluate each expression in the complexity that the programmer
builds, everything can be substituted until the computer is left with a simple
but expansive form. The machine is very good at evaluating this simple form,
because it only needs to look up a few things to process the entire
calculation, which is really just a collection of an ordered organization of
the same calculations over and over again.

A pointer is not the actual data. It's just a trail of connections that
eventually lead to the data you want, instead of having to manage a bunch of
data you don't need to, or want to manage. It's computationally efficient and
it is elegant. It represents exactly what you tell it to represent.

------
copsarebastards
Screw this guy for being right about me.

------
jokoon
seems good will hunting is everyone's mind. I wish people would try to see
more nuances.

------
lispm
Not again...

~~~
robinhoode
Reposting is one thing. It's another when it's been reposted dozens of times
and it somehow gets voted to the top.





Ask HN: Does Facebook marketing work for any of you? - kiyanforoughi

Use this article as a baseline of the discussion:
http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cnbc.com&#x2F;id&#x2F;101151565#_gus<p>Does Facebook marketing work for any of you? I&#x27;m in ecommerce and no one I know in the industry can make FB work on a profitable CPA-basis. I&#x27;m curious to see if anyone out there has made it work.
=====