(car '(:a 1)) -> (keyword a)
(let '(a b c) '(1 :c 2 3)
(list a b c))
-> (1 (keyword c) 2)
(:a 1 :b 2) -> ((keyword a) 1 (keyword b) 2)
(let (:a :b :c) foo ...)
---
"The downside is... then you wouldn't be able to use `apply` to generically call any function."
Nope. It'll work fine. When a function has rest args, any keyword args that don't match will be passed verbatim into the rest args list. Thus:
(def foo args args)
(foo :a 1 :b 2) -> ((keyword a) 1 (keyword b) 2)
If the function doesn't have rest args, then calling it with a keyword arg that it doesn't recognize will result in an error:
(def foo (a b c))
(foo :d 1) -> error: invalid keyword argument 'd
