From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Emacs Lisp and Guile Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 19:47:54 -0600 (MDT) Sender: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org Message-ID: <200208130147.g7D1lsR07028@wijiji.santafe.edu> References: <200207200035.g6K0ZAb27891@aztec.santafe.edu> <200207212015.g6LKF4c00874@aztec.santafe.edu> <200207251807.g6PI75d07615@aztec.santafe.edu> <874renlito.fsf@zagadka.ping.de> <200207271853.g6RIre710837@aztec.santafe.edu> <200207310554.g6V5ssc16508@aztec.santafe.edu> <200208021743.g72HhkX01596@aztec.santafe.edu> <200208071424.g77EO0k03146@wijiji.santafe.edu> <200208091639.g79GdbQW003675@santafe.santafe.edu> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.gmane.org X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1029203268 27211 127.0.0.1 (13 Aug 2002 01:47:48 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 01:47:48 +0000 (UTC) Cc: neil@ossau.uklinux.net, raeburn@raeburn.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 17eQmh-00074m-00 for ; Tue, 13 Aug 2002 03:47:47 +0200 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 17eRAz-0005uO-00 for ; Tue, 13 Aug 2002 04:12:53 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10) id 17eQnZ-0007Kz-00; Mon, 12 Aug 2002 21:48:41 -0400 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.10) id 17eQmr-00076U-00 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 12 Aug 2002 21:47:57 -0400 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.10) id 17eQmq-00075t-00 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 12 Aug 2002 21:47:57 -0400 Original-Received: from pele.santafe.edu ([192.12.12.119]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10) id 17eQmp-00075Z-00; Mon, 12 Aug 2002 21:47:55 -0400 Original-Received: from wijiji.santafe.edu (wijiji [192.12.12.5]) by pele.santafe.edu (8.11.6+Sun/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g7D1mC510725; Mon, 12 Aug 2002 19:48:12 -0600 (MDT) Original-Received: (from rms@localhost) by wijiji.santafe.edu (8.11.6+Sun/8.9.3) id g7D1lsR07028; Mon, 12 Aug 2002 19:47:54 -0600 (MDT) X-Authentication-Warning: wijiji.santafe.edu: rms set sender to rms@wijiji using -f Original-To: marius.vollmer@uni-dortmund.de In-Reply-To: (message from Marius Vollmer on 12 Aug 2002 16:51:46 +0200) Errors-To: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.11 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:6488 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:6488 > But I think that running arbitrary code is not good > design--variables should be variables, not act like functions. But they could be used as the basis for all kind of funny variable-like behavior. It could be. I wonder if there is a way to implement this that discourages misuse of the feature. Perhaps, instead of providing a way to say "run this code when there is an access to variable FOO", it could have to be done in two steps: first, define a feature for something special to do when accessing certain variables; second, turn on one of these features for a certain variable. Of course, it is possible to write a higher level feature that would package up and combine those two steps. It would not be difficult. But many people would get the point and realize that was the wrong thing to do.