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Re: Ad-hoc list structure tutorializing
From: |
Arthur Miller |
Subject: |
Re: Ad-hoc list structure tutorializing |
Date: |
Sun, 06 Dec 2020 15:01:21 +0100 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/28.0.50 (gnu/linux) |
Robin Tarsiger <rtt@dasyatidae.com> writes:
> Richard Stallman wrote:
>> add-to-list is oriented at modifying a variable symbol which need not> be
>> constant. You can use it with a quoted symbol, of course.
> [etc.]
>
> I will point out more concisely, in case my other message got
> (perhaps rightfully) skipped, that I split off this subthread attempting
> to better describe to Arthur why his new idea for the documentation
> was poorly founded, and preempt certain other related ideas. My rhetorical
> question, intended to help explain why add-to-list exists and is _not_
> simply replaced with other list manipulation forms (in a way which I
> imagined might confuse an elisp novice), was then quoted out of context
> by itself to make it look like I was proposing to do that replacement.
> (I believe this was accidental.) I was _not_ making such a proposal, and
> I gave a longer list of potential reasons why not in the other message.
>
> Since this has become more than cluttered enough already, this is the
> last thing I will post on this topic unless personally asked.
>
> -RTT
Seems like some of my mails never got to the list; I don't see them
myself, but I see them in my out folder. No idea why.
@RTT Anyway, thank you for the explanations, you made it clear why it was
designed the way it was. For what it does, I would illustrate it with a
**List in C, a pointer to a pointer but there are no pointers and
references in Lisp, just symbols and values so it takes a symbol and can
not take a value. What we wish is a pointer to a list. I am not sure but
I think that at least LIST-VAR is better than just SYMBOL, maybe
LIST-SYMBOL; whatever.
@RMS Yes it is old function, but for some peopel it is new. I was just
reading documentation of it and thought it was neither very clear nor
well written: "better be a list" or "quote if if you wish" does not
sound to me as a clear explanation of precondition. Since people have
complained that documentation is incomprehensive, so I just tried to
make it a bit easier to diggest while I was anyway reading it. Didn't
know it would release a storm of comments and proposal for replacement.
Best regards
/a
- Re: Lispref add-to-list - doc is unnecessary convoluted, (continued)
- Re: Lispref add-to-list - doc is unnecessary convoluted, Eli Zaretskii, 2020/12/04
- Re: Lispref add-to-list - doc is unnecessary convoluted, Arthur Miller, 2020/12/04
- Re: Lispref add-to-list - doc is unnecessary convoluted, Robin Tarsiger, 2020/12/04
- Re: Ad-hoc list structure tutorializing (was: Lispref add-to-list - doc is unnecessary convoluted), Robin Tarsiger, 2020/12/04
- Re: Ad-hoc list structure tutorializing, Stefan Monnier, 2020/12/04
- Re: Ad-hoc list structure tutorializing, Christopher Dimech, 2020/12/04
- Re: Ad-hoc list structure tutorializing, Eli Zaretskii, 2020/12/05
- Re: Ad-hoc list structure tutorializing, Richard Stallman, 2020/12/06
- Re: Ad-hoc list structure tutorializing, Robin Tarsiger, 2020/12/06
- Re: Ad-hoc list structure tutorializing,
Arthur Miller <=
- Re: Ad-hoc list structure tutorializing, Richard Stallman, 2020/12/06
- Re: add-to-list vs cl-pushnew, Robin Tarsiger, 2020/12/04
- Re: add-to-list vs cl-pushnew, Robin Tarsiger, 2020/12/04
- Sv: Ad-hoc list structure tutorializing (was: Lispref add-to-list - doc is unnecessary convoluted), arthur miller, 2020/12/04
- RE: Lispref add-to-list - doc is unnecessary convoluted, Drew Adams, 2020/12/04
- RE: Lispref add-to-list - doc is unnecessary convoluted, arthur miller, 2020/12/04
- RE: Lispref add-to-list - doc is unnecessary convoluted, Drew Adams, 2020/12/04