[racket] problems with the term 'symbol'

From: Christian Wagenknecht (c.wagenknecht at hszg.de)
Date: Mon Oct 13 11:53:43 EDT 2014

With regard of Racket's symbols I have a problem with the consistency of the terminology as follows.
A symbol in Scheme and maybe in earlier Racket versions is considered as an identifier. For example xyz is a symbol, whereas 'xyz avoids the evaluation of xyz.

In current version the little ' (normally as shorthand for quote) belongs to the symbol. For example 'xyz is a symbol. A symbol is obviously considered as a quoted identifier, at least syntactically.

However, when using a symbol as part of an expression the prepending ' disappears. For example: (vector 1 'xyz), consisting of a number and a symbol evaluates to '#(1 xyz). But xyz is not a symbol but an identifier. Therefore to say that this vector belongs of a number and a symbol is no longer valid. (vector-ref '#(1 xyz) 1) returns 'xyz, which is correct, however, this is also visually a difference where there is none.

Could you help me to get it right, please?

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