[plt-scheme] What are "and" and "or" ?

The logical forms like and, or, if, and so on are syntax (macros or
built-in).  Why?  Consider the following:

(define (singleton-list? x)
  (and (pair? x) (null? (cdr x))))

(singleton-list? 5)

If and were a function, this would first evaluate its arguments:

(pair? 5) => false
(null? (cdr 5)) => error: cannot take the cdr of 5

But, as programmers and logicians, we know that after (pair? 5)
returns false, we don't need to evaluate (null? (cdr 5)), and that
error shouldn't matter.  So (and ...) is a macro that stops the first
time it hits false, and (or ...) is a macro that stops the first time
it hits a true value.

You can always write a function that compares its arguments with and,
if you need to pass it around, as long as you don't need or expect it
to have the same "short-circuiting" behavior.

On Fri, Feb 15, 2008 at 11:57 AM, Marco Morazan <morazanm at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear All,
>
>  Are "and" and "or" primitives?
>
>  I see the following behavior (v370p1):
>
>  > +
>  #<primitive:+>
>  > <
>  #<primitive:<>
>  > or
>  or: bad syntax in: or
>  > and
>  and: bad syntax in: and
>  > (and #t #t)
>  #t
>  >  (or #f #f)
>  #f
>  >
>
>  So, why can I not pass and AND or around like + and * ?
>
>  Thanks,
>
>  Marco