CompuServe Messages

Another benefit of this 'modular' or layered approach to development is that since a code fragment can appear once, and be referenced or called from many places, it becomes much easier to maintain, modify, and enhance the function or procedure, since all changes are isolated in one single location, and if you've ever written a large application, you'll appreciate the benefits of a modular approach to its design. My favorite example of a useful 'subroutine' is also the one I use the most. Every time you need to pull a value out of an entity data list, or another type of association list, you use the ASSOC and CDR functions. Since I do this often, I doesn't pay for me to write it like this: (setq color (cdr (assoc 62 <list> ))) This is fine if you only need to do it once or twice, but in my case, I can save some code, and reduce the complexity of what code I have, using a small "macro" function for the above: (defun get (key alist) (cdr (assoc key alist)) ) With this, whenever I need a value from an association list, I can do it with a call to just one function, rather than two: (setq color (get 62 <list> )) For one who is familar with the function of the (GET) subroutine, this form will be much clearer, and more effecient. -TonyT.