From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.ciao.gmane.io!not-for-mail From: ams@gnu.org (Alfred M. Szmidt) Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Namespaces - summary, conclusion Date: Mon, 04 May 2020 10:18:32 -0400 Message-ID: References: <87pnbjomaz.fsf@fastmail.fm> Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="ciao.gmane.io:159.69.161.202"; logging-data="106929"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Joost Kremers Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Mon May 04 16:22:27 2020 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1jVbzG-000RbO-Ru for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Mon, 04 May 2020 16:22:26 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:54300 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1jVbzF-00039s-TP for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Mon, 04 May 2020 10:22:25 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:45678) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1jVbvV-0005lr-KP for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 04 May 2020 10:18:33 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::e]:58581) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1jVbvV-0001TD-98; Mon, 04 May 2020 10:18:33 -0400 Original-Received: from ams by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1jVbvU-0001pk-UB; Mon, 04 May 2020 10:18:33 -0400 In-reply-to: <87pnbjomaz.fsf@fastmail.fm> (message from Joost Kremers on Mon, 04 May 2020 15:35:16 +0200) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 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-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:248820 Archived-At: > rename-file -> file-rename > delete-file -> file-delete > copy-file -> file-copy > > These functions are also interactive, where it is far more > natural to > want to rename/delete/copy a file, than ... a file > renamed/deleted/copied. > > expand-file-name -> file-expand-name > > You're expanding a file name, so the name seems to fit the task. But wouldn't that be an excellent reason to have an alias? I think it was mentioned before, but aliases are not without a cost. They have to be maintained, and there is the cognitive load as well. The line to draw where one stops adding aliases becomes fuzzy quickly. Having multiple names for the same thing also reduces discoverability, since now you have multiple things called similar but possible different. And Emacs already provides excellent means to discover things, as pointed out by Eli several times. If Emacs was started today from scratch, some of these naming changes would maybe be a good idea (e.g., file-name-expand vs. expand-file-name -- neither is a bad name for that particular function) ... but expand-file-name is as old as Emacs, and as a function name for what it does it is adequate. Changing/Adding such a name (or any other name) has to be weighed against that, and that is very heavy pot of gold. And I think Eli, et al want something more than just a list of here are functions that should change or what ones current preference is... Change for changes sake isn't very useful. Sometimes good enough is just perfect.