Build the Standard Into the Language

Once we've decided that lists "are the right thing" we can go beyond just writing procedures and "making them primitive for efficiency" like length, list-ref, map, and others (list-copy, reverse, append, sublist, list-head, list-tail).

We can actually change the language so that lists have a special status.

• Create a syntax for reading and printing them: (1 2 3)
• Create syntax for procedures with arbitrary number of arguments:

  (define (add . numbers)
    (add-up numbers))
  
  (define (list . elements) elements)
  
  (define list (lambda elements elements))
  

• Create a primitive procedure, apply, that can't be written in Scheme for applying a procedure to a list of arguments:

  (define (point.to-origin pt)
    (sqrt (apply + (map square pt))))
  

Jim Miller