From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Richard M. Stallman" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Real constants Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 14:10:58 -0400 Message-ID: References: <87u0iymvce.fsf-monnier+emacs@gnu.org> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1121452458 15448 80.91.229.2 (15 Jul 2005 18:34:18 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 18:34:18 +0000 (UTC) Cc: monnier@iro.umontreal.ca, emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Jul 15 20:34:10 2005 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DtV0D-000171-VZ for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 20:33:38 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DtV1z-0001l7-Ki for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 14:35:27 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DtUwe-0008N3-9L for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 14:29:56 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DtUwb-0008Ly-Tf for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 14:29:54 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DtUwb-000897-Ay for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 14:29:53 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.164] (helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1DtUps-0000KF-RK for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 14:22:56 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.34) id 1DtUeI-0003EI-A3; Fri, 15 Jul 2005 14:10:58 -0400 Original-To: Juanma Barranquero In-reply-to: (message from Juanma Barranquero on Fri, 15 Jul 2005 02:53:00 +0200) 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:40940 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:40940 Aren't user-defined constants useful in other languages? Isn't it useful per se to be able to set a symbol and guarantee that the user, or another module, is not going to change it by accident? I don't see a need for this. Certainly Common Lisp is not above having constants I don't want to add features to Emacs Lisp just because other languages, even other Lisp dialects, have them. That would be a recipe for adding lots more features, each of which would be work to maintain, work to document, etc. What do you ask for? An example? What if the constants define absolute sizes of external resources (like, for example, `bindat--fixed-length-alist') and every single attempt to change them could be considered an error (and possibly crash Emacs)? That is a case where the feature would provide no practical benefit, because the magnitude of the problem in practice is zero. It would be more elegant in some conceptual sense if these symbols could not be altered. But that would not translate into any benefit for Emacs users, or for us Emacs maintainers. No, that's "I assumed the value of real constants in programming languages was way beyond needing a rationale"... Perhaps I'm assuming too much. The question here is, "How will they help make Emacs better to edit with?"