Re: Shrinking the C core

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

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  > > (defun foo (&optional who-am-I)
  > >   (let ((who-am-I (or who-am-I "foo")))
  > >     (message "I am %s." who-am-I)))
  > >
  > > Is that really better than typing:
  > >
  > > (cl-defun foo (&optional (who-am-I "foo"))
  > >   (message "I am %s." who-am-I))

In Emavs Lisp you can write

(defun foo  (&optional who-am-I)
  (message "I am %s." (or who-am-I "foo")))

which is just as simple as the cl-defun method.

I have no objection to the feature of default values for optional
arguments.  It does not make code harder to understand.

The reason I did not implement that in 1984 was to keep Emacs Lisp's
implementation smaller and finish it sooner.  The latter is no longer
pertinent.  The former reason may still be valid, because implementing
this will add some coimplexity.  Is it worth its cost?  I don't know.


  
-- 
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)