In Lisp (Clojure, Emacs Lisp), what is the difference between list and quote?

Question

From reading introductory material on Lisp, I now consider the following to be identical:

(list 1 2 3)

\'(1 2 3)

However, judging from pro

Answer 1

In Common Lisp, quoted objects are constant literal data. You should not modify this data, as the consequences are undefined. Possible consequences are: modification of shared data, attempt to modify read-only data, an error might be signalled, it might just work, ...

For lists:

'(1 2 3)

Above is a constant list, which will be constructed by the reader and evaluating to itself, because it is quoted. If it appears in Lisp code, a compiler will embed this data somehow in the FASL code.

(quote (1 2 3)) is another way to write it.

(list 1 2 3)

this is a call of the Common Lisp function LIST with three arguments 1, 2 and 3. When evaluated the result is a fresh new list (1 2 3).

Similar:

'(1 . 2)   and  (cons 1 2)

'#(1 2 3)  and  (vector 1 2 3)

One is the literal data and the other is a function call that constructs such a data structure.