From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Kevin Rodgers Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: The doc-strings for car and cdr are insulting. Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 09:32:26 -0600 Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1099064035 14094 80.91.229.6 (29 Oct 2004 15:33:55 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 15:33:55 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Oct 29 17:33:39 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1CNYkv-0004j5-00 for ; Fri, 29 Oct 2004 17:33:33 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.33) id 1CNYsm-0007MD-PP for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 29 Oct 2004 11:41:40 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.33) id 1CNYsW-0007Hz-Uf for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 29 Oct 2004 11:41:25 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.33) id 1CNYsW-0007Ha-7H for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 29 Oct 2004 11:41:24 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.33) id 1CNYsW-0007HX-43 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 29 Oct 2004 11:41:24 -0400 Original-Received: from [80.91.229.2] (helo=main.gmane.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1CNYk2-0005ex-L9 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 29 Oct 2004 11:32:38 -0400 Original-Received: from list by main.gmane.org with local (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1CNYk1-0000Gq-00 for ; Fri, 29 Oct 2004 17:32:37 +0200 Original-Received: from 170.207.1.200 ([170.207.1.200]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Fri, 29 Oct 2004 17:32:37 +0200 Original-Received: from ihs_4664 by 170.207.1.200 with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Fri, 29 Oct 2004 17:32:37 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-Lines: 33 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 170.207.1.200 User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 0.8 (X11/20040916) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en In-Reply-To: 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: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:29145 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:29145 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