14.4 Quoting

Quoting is a technique to modify the evaluation behaviour of expressions. This is achieved by wrapping the expression into a special form. The lisp reader will now evualate this special form instead of the original expression.

SXEmacs basically knows about 3 quoting forms: quote, function and backquote. Moreover, all of these possess an alternative read syntax, ', #' and ` respectively. In programs you will find almost exclusively the abbreviated variants which also facilitate human reading of program sources. You can test yourself in the example section below.