From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Comment on Emacs Lisp Introduction Date: Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:26:42 +0900 Message-ID: <8739uwtlzh.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> References: <87fwyy261p.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> <20100801.140650.297219757.hanche@math.ntnu.no> <87bp9lto70.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1280806047 32574 80.91.229.12 (3 Aug 2010 03:27:27 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2010 03:27:27 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Harald Hanche-Olsen , emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Fren Zeee Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Aug 03 05:27:26 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Og8A0-0005rK-V7 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 03 Aug 2010 05:27:25 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:58635 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Og89z-0005dr-Q4 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:27:23 -0400 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=56861 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Og89t-0005dc-7b for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:27:18 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Og89r-0002I7-VV for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:27:17 -0400 Original-Received: from mtps02.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.97.224]:48577) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Og89r-0002Ht-ME for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:27:15 -0400 Original-Received: from uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp [130.158.99.156]) by mtps02.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id E86AC8211; Tue, 3 Aug 2010 12:27:12 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: by uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 330B31A3A16; Tue, 3 Aug 2010 12:26:42 +0900 (JST) In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: VM 8.0.12-devo-585 under 21.5 (beta29) "garbanzo" ed3b274cc037 XEmacs Lucid (x86_64-unknown-linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) 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:128172 Archived-At: Fren Zeee writes: > I am not complaining. Its just that I dont have it, and need to find > source matching this old executable, which means that it will take > some time to search for the particular freeze or tar file if it is > still on the web. Huh. Why are you so focused on "old"? If you are an historian, you'd better enjoy such searches because that's what historians do. If you're a programmer, though, old versions are of no particular interest unless you already know them well enough for forward differences to have meaning to you. If you're interested in a particular function, M-x disassemble. Otherwise, why do you refuse to take the advice to use a modern version? The basic architecture hasn't changed since the GNU rewrite. Functions that are more complex now have become that way for a reason; those reasons are worth studying. Many functions are *not* more complex in themselves than they were then, but have become simpler because they delegate subtasks that have increased in complexity to other functions. It's easier to work backward from modern versions which are well-developed based on better abstractions (cf. Michael Stokes' comment about Green's Theorem: "It is trivial. It is trivial because the concepts have been well-defined. That definition took decades." -- or something like that, I don't have _Calculus on Manifolds_ handy).