From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: defvar'ing constants Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 01:06:40 -0400 Message-ID: <87vf3zxe9g.fsf-monnier+emacs@gnu.org> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1119936702 27088 80.91.229.2 (28 Jun 2005 05:31:42 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 05:31:42 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Juanma Barranquero , emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Jun 28 07:31:37 2005 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Dn8ge-000666-DZ for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:31:08 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Dn8oQ-00008s-TN for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 28 Jun 2005 01:39:10 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Dn8mj-0007vo-Ha for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 28 Jun 2005 01:37:25 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Dn8mh-0007ug-Cn for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 28 Jun 2005 01:37:24 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Dn8hJ-0006vg-CQ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 28 Jun 2005 01:31:49 -0400 Original-Received: from [209.226.175.4] (helo=tomts16-srv.bellnexxia.net) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1Dn8NL-0008F6-Di; Tue, 28 Jun 2005 01:11:11 -0400 Original-Received: from alfajor ([67.71.35.153]) by tomts16-srv.bellnexxia.net (InterMail vM.5.01.06.10 201-253-122-130-110-20040306) with ESMTP id <20050628050640.WICS27508.tomts16-srv.bellnexxia.net@alfajor>; Tue, 28 Jun 2005 01:06:40 -0400 Original-Received: by alfajor (Postfix, from userid 1000) id DA198D732C; Tue, 28 Jun 2005 01:06:40 -0400 (EDT) Original-To: rms@gnu.org In-Reply-To: (Richard M. Stallman's message of "Fri, 24 Jun 2005 20:31:44 -0400") User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.0.50 (gnu/linux) 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:39747 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:39747 > For consistency: > (defvar CONSTANT) ; should work > (defvar CONSTANT ITS-VALUE) ; should work > (defvar CONSTANT OTHER-VALUE) ; should fail > I think it is more consistent to make them all errors. > defvar should not be used on these symbols. One case I know was consciously make to work is (defvar :foo :foo) so that packages using :foo could be kept backward compatible with Emacs-19 where :foo is a normal variable because keywords don't exist. Whether we should still cater to such thing is another question. Stefan