From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Andreas Roehler Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: general-purpose.el - a general-forms-resource-utility Date: Fri, 07 Jul 2006 10:50:25 +0200 Message-ID: <44AE2051.6080308@easy-emacs.de> References: <44ACE1B5.10909@easy-emacs.de> <44ADFFEF.6050204@easy-emacs.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1152262155 26176 80.91.229.2 (7 Jul 2006 08:49:15 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2006 08:49:15 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Richard Stallman , emacs-devel Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Jul 07 10:49:13 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Fym1Q-0004SV-W7 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 07 Jul 2006 10:49:13 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Fym1Q-000825-EM for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 07 Jul 2006 04:49:12 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Fym18-000820-Tf for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 07 Jul 2006 04:48:54 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Fym17-00081o-3T for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 07 Jul 2006 04:48:54 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Fym16-00081l-Sq for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 07 Jul 2006 04:48:52 -0400 Original-Received: from [212.227.126.187] (helo=moutng.kundenserver.de) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.52) id 1Fym1R-0000S3-DC; Fri, 07 Jul 2006 04:49:13 -0400 Original-Received: from [84.190.180.232] (helo=[192.168.178.23]) by mrelayeu.kundenserver.de (node=mrelayeu4) with ESMTP (Nemesis), id 0ML21M-1Fym122oqd-00051B; Fri, 07 Jul 2006 10:48:49 +0200 User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.4 (X11/20060516) Original-To: Thien-Thi Nguyen In-Reply-To: X-Provags-ID: kundenserver.de abuse@kundenserver.de login:62d13292e0fce6aaed56aaadcb96352d X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:56704 Archived-At: Thien-Thi Nguyen schrieb: > Andreas Roehler writes: > > >> Why not think about a way to relate and reflect these different >> - already exiting and delivered - definitions? >> > > probably this has already been thought about. see, for example: > > http://www.norvig.com/paip/unify.lisp > http://www.norvig.com/paip/README.html > > a related idea is to unify byte-code -- that would be cool. > > thi > Thanks a lot! That's real interesting stuff there. Let me say nonetheless that `unification' might be a result--and certainly will be in some cases--but not the primary goal of the project - that's wider, a more general one. If we agree that scattered general-purpose-functions exist, one of the interesting questions is: Why? What is the situation of the developer while writing the fourth or fifth string-strip function? Might be that - none of the existing are suitable - he ignores the other one. Both seems possible, also in combination. As big as the sources are I doubt that someone will claim to know everything. Also the question of suitability is no easy one - following the discussion around string-strip these days I don't see a way of automatized unification. In any case it would help a lot if we could - while writing - give some keyword, for example `correct user input' and get a list of possible forms. (That's the case already with `apropos' somehow, that's not a new idea as such, so I will also examine `apropos' in this context.) __ Andreas Roehler