RE: why not "stripes" in: (let ((zebra 'stripes) ... ; strings vs symbols?

[Drew Adams]

> * Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@gnu.org> in gnu.emacs.help:
> > A string is not atomic.
> 
> I don't understand, the elisp reference says that strings are atoms:
> http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/eintr/Lisp-Atoms.html
> 
> and that the only type not being an atom is the cons cell, and AFAIK,
> strings are not cons cells.
> 
> As a quick test, evaling (atom "mystring") returns t.

Yes, a string is a Lisp atom.  This meaning of atomic says only that
it is not a cons.

I think what TTN meant perhaps is that a string is also a sequence
(an array) of characters, i.e., a collection.
See (elisp) `String Basics'.