Re: Does not byte-compile return the compiled function in Emacs 24?

[Stefan Monnier]

>> Don't know.  `byte-compile' does various things in various circumstances
>> (it's pretty DWIMish), so without more details I can't help you.

> What about this?

>   (byte-compile (defun foo ()))   => #[...]

This is really:

   (defun foo ())
   (byte-compile 'foo)

>   (byte-compile (lambda () nil))  => #[...]

This happens to be the same as

   (byte-compile '(lambda () nil))

which is the preferred form to call it.
   
>   (setq lexical-binding t)
>   (byte-compile (defun foo ()))   => nil

Indeed, this is not supported currently: (symbol-function 'foo) is
a closure rather than a lambda expression, and byte-compile doesn't know
how to compile a closure.

>   (byte-compile (lambda () nil))  => nil

This fails because you're passing it a closure rather than
a lambda-expression (i.e. same problem as for `defun' above).

This works: (byte-compile '(lambda () nil))


        Stefan