What is happening with this Common Lisp code?

Question

I\'ve written the following bit of code to simulate rolling a six-sided die a number of times and counting how many times each side landed up:

(defun dice (num)
         


        

Answer 1

SBCL tells you what's wrong:

* (defun dice (num)
  (let ((myList '(0 0 0 0 0 0)))
    (progn (format t "~a" myList)
           (loop for i from 1 to num do
                 (let ((myRand (random 6)))
                   (setf (nth myRand myList) (+ 1 (nth myRand myList)))))
           (format t "~a" myList))))
; in: DEFUN DICE
;     (SETF (NTH MYRAND MYLIST) (+ 1 (NTH MYRAND MYLIST)))
; ==>
;   (SB-KERNEL:%SETNTH MYRAND MYLIST (+ 1 (NTH MYRAND MYLIST)))
; 
; caught WARNING:
;   Destructive function SB-KERNEL:%SETNTH called on constant data.
;   See also:
;     The ANSI Standard, Special Operator QUOTE
;     The ANSI Standard, Section 3.2.2.3
; 
; compilation unit finished
;   caught 1 WARNING condition

DICE

So in essence: Don't call destructive functions (here setf) on constant data.