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From: Daniel Brockman <daniel@brockman.se>
To: emacs-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Re: constant `e'
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2007 15:33:54 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <87ireaf5f1.fsf@wigwam.brockman.se> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 20070210135753.GB885@muc.de

Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> writes:

>> Incidentally, I also think `(not (null n))' looks better than `n' ---
>> as do, I believe, most Emacs Lisp programmers.
>
> I disagree with you on both counts.  When I see `(not (null n))', it
> takes extra effort mentally to filter out what, to me, is just noise.

Hm!  That's interesting.

The concept of `non-nil' is very basic to me, so I do not
have to filter anything out of `(not (null ...))', because
it is already phrased the way I think about it.

>> Take a look at this code:
>
>>   (cond (n
>>          (bongo-mark-line-forward (prefix-numeric-value n)))
>>         ((bongo-region-active-p)
>>          (bongo-mark-region (region-beginning) (region-end)))
>>         (t
>>          (bongo-mark-line-forward)))
>
>> It's ugly, isn't it?  It's not just that `(not (null n))' is
>> semantically clearer than a lone `n'; it's also more beautiful.
>
> It's more alliterative, perhaps.  But it feels like I'm being talked
> down to - the programmer is saying, in effect "you probably don't
> understand Lisp very well, so I'll make it very very clear".

I had no idea some people read it like that.

Do you feel similarily talked down to when you see C code
like the following?

   for (node = list->first; node != NULL; node = node->next)
     process (node);

-- 
Daniel Brockman <daniel@brockman.se>

  reply	other threads:[~2007-02-10 14:33 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 67+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2007-02-09  7:37 constant `e' Drew Adams
2007-02-09  9:32 ` Juanma Barranquero
2007-02-09 11:24   ` Kim F. Storm
2007-02-09 15:08   ` Stefan Monnier
2007-02-09 15:19     ` Juanma Barranquero
2007-02-09 15:34       ` Stefan Monnier
2007-02-10 17:40       ` Richard Stallman
2007-02-09 18:33     ` Jay Belanger
2007-02-09 18:51       ` Stefan Monnier
2007-02-09 14:23 ` Richard Stallman
2007-02-09 14:32   ` Leo
2007-02-09 23:11     ` Kim F. Storm
2007-02-10  0:16       ` Drew Adams
2007-02-12 18:11         ` Stuart D. Herring
2007-02-10 17:39     ` Richard Stallman
2007-02-09 14:37   ` David Kastrup
2007-02-10 17:39     ` Richard Stallman
2007-02-09 15:33   ` Drew Adams
2007-02-09 16:30     ` Eli Zaretskii
2007-02-09 16:50       ` Drew Adams
2007-02-10  9:49         ` Eli Zaretskii
2007-02-09 23:07   ` Dieter Wilhelm
2007-02-10 17:39     ` Richard Stallman
2007-02-10 18:41     ` Slawomir Nowaczyk
2007-02-10 21:12       ` Dieter Wilhelm
2007-02-10  9:29   ` Kevin Rodgers
2007-02-10 19:13     ` Stefan Monnier
2007-02-10 19:22       ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2007-02-10 19:38         ` Stefan Monnier
2007-02-10 20:32           ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2007-02-12  5:04             ` Kevin Rodgers
2007-02-12 16:06               ` Drew Adams
2007-02-10  6:27 ` Daniel Brockman
2007-02-10  8:59   ` David Kastrup
2007-02-10 11:35     ` Daniel Brockman
2007-02-10 12:01       ` David Kastrup
2007-02-10 12:42         ` Daniel Brockman
2007-02-10 12:43       ` Alan Mackenzie
2007-02-10 14:33         ` Daniel Brockman [this message]
2007-02-10 18:05           ` Alan Mackenzie
2007-02-10 18:29             ` Daniel Brockman
2007-02-12 19:03           ` Stuart D. Herring
2007-02-12 19:57             ` Daniel Brockman
2007-02-10 17:38         ` David Kastrup
2007-02-10 18:15           ` Daniel Brockman
2007-02-12 18:51           ` Stuart D. Herring
2007-02-10 19:05       ` Stefan Monnier
2007-02-10 20:48         ` Daniel Brockman
2007-02-10 21:06           ` Stefan Monnier
2007-02-11  9:42           ` David Kastrup
2007-02-11 17:53             ` Daniel Brockman
2007-02-10 21:34       ` Edward O'Connor
2007-02-12 19:17       ` Stuart D. Herring
2007-02-12 20:37         ` Daniel Brockman
2007-02-12 20:40           ` David Kastrup
2007-02-10 17:41   ` Richard Stallman
2007-02-10  9:02 ` Alan Mackenzie
2007-02-10  9:51   ` Jason Rumney
2007-02-12 18:16     ` Stuart D. Herring
2007-02-10 15:13   ` Juanma Barranquero
2007-02-10 19:12   ` Stefan Monnier
2007-02-11  0:43   ` David Hansen
2007-02-11  1:13     ` Jay Belanger
2007-02-11  1:24   ` Drew Adams
2007-02-10 18:53 ` Chong Yidong
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2007-02-13  2:34 djh
2007-02-13  8:23 ` Werner LEMBERG

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