List building question

I am trying to build a list of dotted pairs, where one value is actually
pulled from a current sysvar value. I tried
'(("cursorsize" . 100)("clayer" . (getvar "clayer")))
but rather than getting the value of the sysvar I get 'getvar "clayer"'. Am
I out of luck here and I can't build a list this way?

Best,
Gordon

 

Quoting a symbol or a list prevents it's evaluation. 'a is just a
short form for (quote a), and this returns the symbol and not the
value which is bound to it.

(list ... (cons "clayer" (getvar "clayer"))) does what you want.

BTW: the "q" in setq stands for "quote". You want the symbol to be set
to a value, and not the value of the symbol be set to a value.

Try this

(setq test 'a)
(set test "here-I-am")
(print test)
(print a)

Tom Berger

 

Try this:
(list '("cursorsize" . 100)(cons "clayer" (getvar "clayer")))

Jeff

 

Try (list (cons "cursorsize" . 100)(cons "clayer" . (getvar "clayer")))

Dan

 

It's because you are quoting a list. If the list contains something to be
evaluated, as yours does, you need something like

(list
'("cursorsize" . 100)
(cons "clayer" (getvar "clayer"))
)

You can quote the sublist that doesn't need evaluation, but need to cons the
other.

 

10 minutes, three answers, and it's the Monday between Christmas and New
Years! This place rocks! Thanks all.

Gordon