type of literal words

Question

I was reading Bindology and tried this:

>> type? first ['x]
== lit-word!
>> type? 'x
== word!

I expected type? 'x to return lit-word! too. Appreciate any insights.

Answer 1

A LIT-WORD! if seen in a "live" context by the evaluator resolves to the word itself. It can be used to suppress evaluation simply with a single token when you want to pass a WORD! value to a function. (Of course, in your own dialects when you are playing the role of "evaluator", it's a Tinker-Toy and you can make it mean whatever you want.)

Had you wanted to get an actual LIT-WORD! you would have to somehow suppress the evaluator from turning it into a WORD!. You noticed that can be achieved by picking it out of an unevaluated block, such as with first ['x]. But the more "correct" way is to use quote 'x:

>> type? quote 'x
== lit-word!

Beware an odd bug known as "lit-word decay":

>> x-lit: quote 'x
>> type? x-lit
== word!

That has been corrected in Red and is pending correction in Rebol. Until then you have to use a GET-WORD! to extract a lit-word value from the variable holding it:

>> x-lit: quote 'x
>> type? :x-lit
== lit-word!

(You may have already encountered this practice as the way of fetching the value of a word vs. "running" it through the evaluator...as when you want to deal with a function's value vs. invoking it. It should not be necessary on values holding lit-word!. Accident of history, it would seem.)