Subject: RE: bug#23781: 25.0.95; read-string with HIST lexically bound

From: Drew Adams <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 2016 13:42:52 -0700 (PDT)

> > I think it's more a question of definition than philosophy: AFAIU using
> > the word "symbols" here is strictly speaking incorrect; it should be
> > "variables".
> 
> Yes, perhaps the implementation details leaked a bit too much into the
> description. I think it remains the case that the name of a variable
> is a symbol (as opposed to a string) though.

The _name_ of a variable is not a symbol.

A symbol is a Lisp object.  It can have a name (`symbol-name'), a
value as a (dynamic) variable (`symbol-value'), a value as a
function (`symbol-function'), and a list of arbitrary Lisp values
(`symbol-plist').

Other kinds of programming variables also exist in Emacs Lisp,
including lexical variables.  A `let' and similar constructs in
the language can bind a lexical variable or it can bind a dynamic
variable, that is, a symbol used as a variable.  In the latter
case, the bound value is available as the symbol's `symbol-value'.