From: Kevin Rodgers <ihs_4664@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: The doc-strings for car and cdr are insulting.
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 09:32:26 -0600 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <cltnqg$dga$1@sea.gmane.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <E1CNOR7-000679-BR@fencepost.gnu.org>
Richard Stallman wrote:
> How about something like the following, changing "LIST" to
"CONS", and
> using "lhs" and "rhs":
>
> "car is a built-in function.
> (car CONS)
>
> Return the \"left hand side\" of CONS. If CONS is nil, return nil.
> If CONS is a list, the car is its first element.
> Error if arg is not nil and not a cons cell. See also `car-safe'."
>
> and
>
> "cdr is a built-in function.
> (cdr CONS)
>
> Return the \"right hand side\" of CONS. If CONS is nil, return nil.
> If CONS is a list, the cdr is the list without its first element.
> Error if arg is not nil and not a cons cell. See also `cdr-safe'."
>
> These are good.
They are awful. A cons cells does not have left and right sides any
more than a list has left and right elements. A cons cell has car and
cdr components, which are the first element and the remaining elements
of a list.
As Albert Einstein said: Things should be made as simple as possible,
but no simpler.
--
Kevin Rodgers
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2004-10-29 15:32 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 8+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
[not found] <E1CMlLW-0000cN-HD@fencepost.gnu.org>
2004-10-27 18:56 ` The doc-strings for car and cdr are insulting Alan Mackenzie
2004-10-27 23:35 ` Luc Teirlinck
2004-10-27 23:40 ` Luc Teirlinck
2004-10-28 10:44 ` David Kastrup
2004-10-29 4:32 ` Richard Stallman
2004-10-29 10:12 ` Lennart Borgman
2004-10-29 15:32 ` Kevin Rodgers [this message]
2004-10-30 0:21 ` Chris Smith
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