13:41:21makomopjb: sure, but "dotted list" doesn't describe it exactly, does it? also, wouldn't "dotted list" just refer to the whole notation itself? essentially every list can be dotted if you choose to represent it that way :)
13:41:33makomomfiano: yep, i'm aware of that, but it doesn't really answer my question :)
13:41:54makomoit was more of a terminlogy question
13:42:58mfianoDid you get the answer to your question then?
13:43:32makomonot quite. i know how to check for it of course and that it's essentially an improper list, etc., but i was wondering if there's some sort of common name for such a structure
13:43:43mfianoWell, assuming you're talking about Common Lisp, it is called exactly what pjb said it is called.
13:45:14mfianodotted list n. a list which has a terminating atom that is not nil. (An atom by itself is not a dotted list, however.)
13:45:22mfianodotted pair n. 1. a cons whose cdr is a non-list. 2. any cons, used to emphasize the use of the cons as a symmetric data pair.
13:45:43makomoyep, i was just about to link to the same thing
13:45:56makomofor some reason i forgot to turn to the glossary this time, and instead was just searching elsewhere
13:48:02makomoi've seen the concept mentioned a few times around the internet and some people did use the term "dotted pair", but there was no formal reference
13:48:08makomothis is much more satisfying! thanks :)
13:48:43mfianoYou might find #commonlisp more useful by the way
13:50:25makomoyeah, i'm in there as well, but this was a more general lisp question (and my context was some emacs code i was looking at). however, common lisp has enough weight that i can just use the term for any lisp :)