From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Kastrup Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: The poor state of documentation of pcase like things. Date: Sun, 03 Jan 2016 10:13:48 +0100 Message-ID: <87y4c7ja9f.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> References: <20151216202605.GA3752@acm.fritz.box> <87io3m60bq.fsf@web.de> <877fk1nnk0.fsf@web.de> <8760zlue3j.fsf@gmail.com> <87vb7kajgv.fsf@web.de> <83y4c9ag06.fsf@gnu.org> <87bn95m9eg.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> <5686CDFB.2010105@dancol.org> <83fuygcs5g.fsf@gnu.org> <87r3i0l6oq.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> <87si2fwm38.fsf@web.de> <83twmv9vh5.fsf@gnu.org> <87si2fxpgj.fsf@web.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1451816317 4423 80.91.229.3 (3 Jan 2016 10:18:37 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2016 10:18:37 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Eli Zaretskii , dancol@dancol.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Michael Heerdegen Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Jan 03 11:18:20 2016 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1aFfju-0006Ul-1K for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 03 Jan 2016 11:18:18 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:41160 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aFfjt-0006GZ-G9 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 03 Jan 2016 05:18:17 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:49023) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aFfjh-0006GR-3M for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 03 Jan 2016 05:18:05 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aFfjg-0000Mp-82 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 03 Jan 2016 05:18:05 -0500 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:37998) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aFfjZ-0000Kt-4l; Sun, 03 Jan 2016 05:17:57 -0500 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:34424 helo=lola) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1aFfjY-0003Vs-Ab; Sun, 03 Jan 2016 05:17:56 -0500 Original-Received: by lola (Postfix, from userid 1000) id A9F01DF5B8; Sun, 3 Jan 2016 10:13:48 +0100 (CET) In-Reply-To: <87si2fxpgj.fsf@web.de> (Michael Heerdegen's message of "Sun, 03 Jan 2016 05:21:48 +0100") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/25.1.50 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:197430 Archived-At: Michael Heerdegen writes: > The syntax is very simple for its expressiveness. So? In ancient Greek, "you two should have started feeling a bit ashamed of yourself" is a single word (employing the numerus Dual, the mode Optative, the time Aorist, and a compounded word). The syntax is very simple for its expressiveness. There is a reason we don't use it any more. > But maybe I'm just obsessed by the beast. If you want to use the syntax where no expressiveness is required because you find it to be a nice tradeoff in case where huge amounts of expressiveness are required, yes, you may be obsessed by it. As it stands, we are just converging on the syntax. It makes sense to do that on those cases where the differences count, namely the complex ones, so that we don't need to change the simple ones all over the map for every change we make. > Sorry, I give up. pcase seems to scare off people somehow. We don't use any constructs for the sake of using them. We use them to get stuff done in a manner where other people feel comfortable picking up where we left off. Using complex constructs for simple, well-covered cases tends not to do that. -- David Kastrup