emacs.d/clones/lisp/colinallen.dnsalias.org/lp/node28.html

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<TITLE> Exercises</TITLE>
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<A HREF="node29.html"> Recursion and Iteration</A>
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<A HREF="node15.html"> Defining Lisp functions</A>
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<A HREF="node27.html"> Logical Operators: And </A>
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<H1> Exercises</H1>
<P>
<DL COMPACT><DT>1.
<DD> Use the Lisp interpreter to help you learn or refresh your memory about the behavior of these predicates:
<b>&gt; </b>, <b>&lt;</b>, <b>&gt; </b>=, <b>&lt;</b>=, =, zerop, numberp, symbolp, atom, constantp, listp, functionp
<P>
<DT>2.
<DD> Consider the following definition:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<PRE>(defun life (a b)
(cond ((null a) b)
((null b) a)
(t 'its-tough)))
</PRE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
Suppose you are running the Lisp interpreter and you enter the following:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<PRE>&gt; (setf a 'oh-boy)
</PRE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
Then you do the following:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<PRE>&gt; (life 'gummi a)
</PRE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
What are the global and local values of a and b before, during, and after this command?
<P>
<DT>3.
<DD> Consider the following function definition:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<PRE>(defun who-knows (lst1 lst2)
(cond ((= (length lst1) (length lst2))
(+ (length lst1) (length lst2)))
((&gt; (length lst1) (length lst2)) (length lst2))
(t (length lst1))))
</PRE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<DL COMPACT><DT>a.
<DD> What does this function do? Be precise as what would happen in each case.
<DT>b.
<DD> How would you make this function crash (return an ERROR)? Be careful in explaining why it will happen.
<P>
</DL>
<P>
<DT>4.
<DD> Write a function called BLENGTH (B stands for better) which is more tolerant of bad arguments, and is more informative. It works as follows:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<PRE>&gt; (blength '(a b c d))
4
&gt; (blength 'hello)
(sorry hello is an atom)
&gt; (blength 4)
(sorry 4 is a number)
</PRE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
Thus, if a list is passed in it should return the proper length, else if a number, or another type of atom is passed in, it should identify them as
such.
<P>
<DT>5.
<DD> Consider the following definition for the function CIRCULATE:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<PRE>(defun circulate (lst)
(append (rest lst)
(list (first lst))))
</PRE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
This function takes a list and constructs a new list by taking the first element of the old list and making it the last element of the new. For
example:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<PRE>&gt; (circulate '((whats) happening here))
(happening here (whats))
</PRE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
Rewrite the function and call it CIRCULATE-DIR so that it can
circulate lists in both directions. Thus it should work as follows:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<PRE>&gt; (circulate-dir '(1 2 3 4) 'left)
(4 1 2 3)
&gt; (circulate-dir '(1 2 3 4) 'right)
(2 3 4 1)
</PRE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
<DT>6.
<DD> With the definition of CIRCULATE given above, what happens (and explain why) when we evaluate
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<PRE>a. (circulate 'hello)
b. (circulate nil)
</PRE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
<DT>7.
<DD> Define a function called MY-AND which acts like the Lisp AND function (but only takes 2 arguments) using only IF.
<P>
</DL><BR> <HR>
<P>
<ADDRESS>
<I>&#169; Colin Allen &amp; Maneesh Dhagat <BR>
March 2007 </I>
</ADDRESS>
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