Re: newbie: read, load and eval

[dale]

Mike Gran writes:
>> 
>> Let's say you had a file "a.data" that contained
>> 
>> ("This" "is" "a" "test")
>> 
>> Note that there is no initial quote.
>> 
>> ...
>> 
>> One step up could be
>> 
>> (call-with-input-file "a.data"  (lambda (p) (display (read p))))

   Perfect!  I was basically making a mistake with the initial quote.



>> Note that this specifically reads exactly one s-expression from the
>> top of the file, as you requested.  It might be simpler to have an
>> "a.data" that contained a bunch of (define) statements, like so
>> 
>> (define a '("This" "is" "a" "test"))
>> 
>> Then you could (load "a.data") that file, and the defined variables would be 
>> available.

    Yuk!  That would mean that I have two independent pieces of code
which need to agree with each other to work properly, opening the door
for bugs... it also would pollute the top-level environment.  I like
your first answer!



>> Hope this helps,

    Sure does! Thanks.