views:

989

answers:

3

I have the following Clojure code and I'm not sure why it's not working:

(defn match (x y &optional binds)
  (cond
   ((eql x y) (values binds t))
   ((assoc x binds) (match (binding x binds) y binds))
   ((assoc y binds) (match x (binding y binds) binds))
   ((var? x) (values (cons (cons x y) binds) t))
   ((var? y) (values (cons (cons y x) binds) t))
   (t
    (when (and (consp x) (consp y))
      (multiple-value-bind (b2 yes)
                           (match (car x) (car y) binds)
        (and yes (match (cdr x) (cdr y) b2)))))))

(The code is translated from Paul Graham's ANSI Common Lisp book.)

When I run it, I get the following error:

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Don't know how to create ISeq from: Symbol
clojure.lang.Compiler$CompilerException: NO_SOURCE_FILE:2: java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Don't know how to create ISeq from: Symbol
        at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:3713)
        at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyzeSeq(Compiler.java:3848)
        at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:3698)
        at clojure.lang.Compiler.access$200(Compiler.java:37)
        at clojure.lang.Compiler$DefExpr$Parser.parse(Compiler.java:343)
        at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyzeSeq(Compiler.java:3858)
        at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:3698)
        at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyzeSeq(Compiler.java:3848)
        at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:3698)
        at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:3671)
        at clojure.lang.Compiler.eval(Compiler.java:3895)
        at clojure.lang.Repl.main(Repl.java:75)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at jline.ConsoleRunner.main(ConsoleRunner.java:69)
Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Don't know how to create ISeq from: Symbol
        at clojure.lang.LazyCons.rest(LazyCons.java:64)
        at clojure.lang.ASeq.count(ASeq.java:85)
        at clojure.lang.RT.count(RT.java:486)
        at clojure.lang.Cons.count(Cons.java:41)
        at clojure.lang.Compiler.analyze(Compiler.java:3695)
        ... 16 more
Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Don't know how to create ISeq from: Symbol
        at clojure.lang.LazyCons.first(LazyCons.java:44)
        at clojure.lang.LazyCons.rest(LazyCons.java:59)
        ... 20 more
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Don't know how to create ISeq from: Symbol
        at clojure.lang.RT.seqFrom(RT.java:465)
        at clojure.lang.RT.seq(RT.java:448)
        at clojure.seq__28.invoke(boot.clj:92)
        at clojure.every_QMARK___596.invoke(boot.clj:1180)
        at clojure.fn__1147$psig__1149.invoke(boot.clj:2155)
        at clojure.map__602$fn__605.invoke(boot.clj:1214)
        at clojure.lang.LazyCons.first(LazyCons.java:40)
        ... 21 more

What am I doing wrong here?

+12  A: 

The problem is that I'm using parentheses ('(' and ')'), rather than square brackets ('[' and ']'), for the arguments list.

It should start out like this:

(defn match [x y &optional binds]

(I found the answer in Programming Clojure by Stuart Halloway.)

Paul Reiners
Yep. I've been working through Project Euler on Clojure in the last month or so. I've solved >60 problems, but this still happens to me on and off (happened just yesterday). As an error message, it's quite unhelpful. This particular error seems to be one you just have to learn to recognize "maybe I need to check that" instead of just banging you head against for a while (as I did the first time I saw this).
MBCook
+9  A: 

Also, the cond form doesn't use parens for its clauses:

(cond
  test1 eval1
  test2 eval2
  :else eval3)
Drew R.
+3  A: 

The main answer was already given (function arguments are in [] not () in clojure) but before trying to mess with code from Common Lisp sources, I'd recommend actually learning Clojure's syntax, as it is NOT anything close to a pure CL port, at all. You're just going to get into trouble treating it like it is.

Runevault