From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@xemacs.org>
To: Dan Nicolaescu <dann@ics.uci.edu>
Cc: Juri Linkov <juri@jurta.org>,
Juanma Barranquero <lekktu@gmail.com>,
Tom Tromey <tromey@redhat.com>,
"T.V. Raman" <tv.raman.tv@gmail.com>,
emacs-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Re: files.el: Patch to make project-settings optional/customizable
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:14:24 +0900 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <87r651kgzj.fsf@xemacs.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <200811232121.mANLLDaU023870@mothra.ics.uci.edu>
Dan Nicolaescu writes:
> Brittle is to allow the user to break something just by using a normal
> way of changing settings "setq". We have gone over this too many times
> already...
Agreed, making a defconst is not childproof (which seems to be the
goal of several senior developers these days). But I thought Emacs
Lisp was a language used by adults? You expect adults to read the
documentation and take responsibility for what they do. I really
don't see a problem with using a defconst here.
BTW, "brittle" doesn't mean that it breaks when the user uses normal
features of Lisp to intentionally do something inadvisable. "Brittle"
means it breaks *accidentally* in the normal process of programming.
Making this a defconst is the opposite of brittle: it is just good
programming practice, as it allows the byte compiler to check for
typos etc. and warn about attempts to set or bind the variable. You
can't do that with a string. (Well, you *could*, but then it would be
a symbol, wouldn't it?)
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2008-11-24 2:14 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 60+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2008-11-13 14:29 files.el: Patch to make project-settings optional/customizable T.V. Raman
2008-11-13 15:20 ` Chong Yidong
2008-11-13 16:07 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-13 16:19 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-13 16:45 ` Tom Tromey
2008-11-13 17:14 ` Chong Yidong
2008-11-13 17:28 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-13 17:55 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-11-13 17:59 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-13 19:13 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-11-13 19:00 ` Tom Tromey
2008-11-13 19:15 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-11-13 18:26 ` Chong Yidong
2008-11-13 18:48 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-18 16:36 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-18 22:04 ` Juri Linkov
2008-11-18 22:15 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-18 22:42 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-11-18 23:18 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-18 23:41 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-11-18 22:59 ` Stefan Monnier
2008-11-18 23:31 ` Juri Linkov
2008-11-18 23:33 ` Chong Yidong
2008-11-18 23:41 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-18 23:50 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-11-19 0:14 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-19 1:48 ` Chong Yidong
2008-11-19 8:26 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-11-19 12:52 ` Richard M. Stallman
2008-11-18 23:37 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-11-19 2:01 ` Stefan Monnier
2008-11-19 8:39 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-11-19 13:27 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-19 22:45 ` Juri Linkov
2008-11-19 22:58 ` Tom Tromey
2008-11-20 2:18 ` Stefan Monnier
2008-11-22 19:08 ` Juri Linkov
2008-11-22 19:40 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-22 19:51 ` Juri Linkov
2008-11-22 20:20 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-22 22:03 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-11-23 3:34 ` Miles Bader
2008-11-23 5:27 ` Stefan Monnier
2008-11-23 5:36 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-11-23 5:58 ` Stefan Monnier
2008-11-23 8:10 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-23 10:45 ` Juri Linkov
2008-11-23 12:10 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-23 12:41 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-11-23 17:16 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-23 17:45 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-11-23 21:21 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-24 2:14 ` Stephen J. Turnbull [this message]
2008-11-24 3:06 ` Dan Nicolaescu
2008-11-24 5:35 ` Chong Yidong
2008-11-22 4:03 ` Kevin Rodgers
2008-11-19 4:07 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2008-11-13 19:04 ` Tom Tromey
2008-11-13 19:23 ` Tom Tromey
2008-11-13 19:55 ` Juanma Barranquero
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