title: Quote Behavior With Vectors and Complex Numbers in Common Lisp
body: <p>After playing with vectors and complex numbers in Common Lisp, I became curious about something. Namely, how does the <code>quote</code> operator relate to these data structures?</p>
  
  <p>For instance, when it comes to lists, the following examples are straightforward to me:</p>
  
  <pre><code>CL-USER&gt; '(1 2)
  (1 2)
  CL-USER&gt; ''(1 2)
  '(1 2)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Let's do the same with vectors:</p>
  
  <pre><code>CL-USER&gt; #(1 2)
  #(1 2)
  CL-USER&gt; '#(1 2)
  #(1 2)
  CL-USER&gt; ''#(1 2)
  '#(1 2)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And complex numbers:</p>
  
  <pre><code>CL-USER&gt; #c (1 2)
  #C(1 2)
  CL-USER&gt; '#c (1 2)
  #C(1 2)
  CL-USER&gt; ''#c (1 2)
  '#C(1 2)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>To save space, I will just say that quoting characters behaves similarly.</p>
  
  <p>My question is why is it that the <code>#</code> and <code>'#</code> evaluated to the same expression? What is the reason for that? What are the "guts" of this mechanism?</p>