Replace elements in nested quoted lists adds new elements?

Question

I have a nested list, and I am trying to non-destructively replace all its elements (inside the nested list as well). That is, given my input list

\'(1 \'(2         


        

Answer 1

What am I doing wrong?

You have actually done a good work with loop and it works! Remember that ' stands for quote, so:

'(1 '(2 3 4) '(5 6 7) 8 9)

is equal to

(quote (1 (quote (2 3 4)) (quote (5 6 7)) 8 9))
;       |  |      | | |    |      | | |   | |
       (0 (0     (0 0 0)) (0     (0 0 0)) 0 0)

you see, your quotes have been substituted too (except for the first one, which has been consumed during evaluation of the function argument)! One quote is enough to suspend execution.