Quoting advice

[scolobb]

Hi,

I am dealing with abstract labels (as in, graph node names, symbols in formal language theory, etc.) and I wonder whether I should go with 'a, 'b, etc. or "a", "b", etc.

If I were doing this in Racket or Emacs Lisp, I would go with quoted symbols. In particular, I would expect that '(a b) be the same as (list 'a 'b). In Hy things work differently, and in particular ['a 'b] is a (Python?) list of (Hy) symbols, while '[a b] is a (Hy) list of (Hy) symbols. Also, I think the documentation mentions that, since Hy compiles to Python AST, it often makes more sense to use strings as labels rather than quoted symbols, but I am not sure whether that recommendation applies to my use case.

What would be the recommended / idiomatic way to have lists of abstract labels in Hy?

[Kodiologist]

Either is justifiable, and keywords are a viable third option. Which is more convenient will depend on details like what other libraries you intend to use with these things. If in doubt, default to strings. It's common for new Hy users to get into trouble by using symbols when they should be using strings; the reverse is much less common.

[scolobb]

Thanks a lot @Kodiologist ! I'll go with strings for my labels then.