How to define a function that returns a function in clisp

Question

Here is a function I defined in Scheme:

(define (multn n) (lambda (x) (* x n)))

and when I type

((multn 7) 5)

it gives 35.

However, when I used Clisp:

(defun multn (n) (lambda (x) (* x n)))

it gives me error: 'EVAL: (MULTN 7) is not a function name; try using a symbol instead'

How can I get it work? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You need to use funcall because of separate namespaces in Common Lisp:

[1]> (defun multn (n) (lambda (x) (* x n)))
MULTN
[2]> (funcall (multn 7) 5)
35

See for example the Common Lisp cookbook for an in-depth explanation.