Elisp: Quote List Syntax vs List (2025)

By Xah Lee. Date: .

emacs lisp, quote list syntax vs list

in lisp, is there a good reason to write

(setq xx-a '(("el" . load) ("elc" . load) ))

instead

(setq xx-b (list (cons "el" 'load) (cons "elc" 'load) )).

(setq xx-a
      '(("el" . load)
        ("elc" . load)
        ("java" . xah-java-compile-and-run)))

(setq xx-b
      (list (cons "el" 'load)
            (cons "elc" 'load)
            (cons "java" 'xah-java-compile-and-run)))

(equal xx-a xx-b)
;; t

truly amazing. ai explained some esoteric lisp language issue i never fully groked.

elisp quote list syntax vs list 2025-08-07 164c4
elisp quote list syntax vs list 2025-08-07 164c4