From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Drew Adams Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: RE: sequence manipulation functions Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2014 10:27:56 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: References: <87oasmmwzt.fsf@gmail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1415212106 17012 80.91.229.3 (5 Nov 2014 18:28:26 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2014 18:28:26 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Nicolas Petton , Stefan Monnier , emacs-devel To: bruce.connor.am@gmail.com Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Nov 05 19:28:20 2014 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Xm5Jb-0004ut-Bo for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 05 Nov 2014 19:28:19 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:47977 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Xm5Ja-00012s-L9 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 05 Nov 2014 13:28:18 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:35306) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Xm5JQ-000106-VO for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 05 Nov 2014 13:28:16 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Xm5JK-0002ls-90 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 05 Nov 2014 13:28:08 -0500 Original-Received: from aserp1040.oracle.com ([141.146.126.69]:23864) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Xm5JK-0002la-3A for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 05 Nov 2014 13:28:02 -0500 Original-Received: from acsinet21.oracle.com (acsinet21.oracle.com [141.146.126.237]) by aserp1040.oracle.com (Sentrion-MTA-4.3.2/Sentrion-MTA-4.3.2) with ESMTP id sA5IRxg6032745 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Wed, 5 Nov 2014 18:28:00 GMT Original-Received: from aserz7021.oracle.com (aserz7021.oracle.com [141.146.126.230]) by acsinet21.oracle.com (8.14.4+Sun/8.14.4) with ESMTP id sA5IRx7k009483 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=FAIL); Wed, 5 Nov 2014 18:27:59 GMT Original-Received: from abhmp0015.oracle.com (abhmp0015.oracle.com [141.146.116.21]) by aserz7021.oracle.com (8.14.4+Sun/8.14.4) with ESMTP id sA5IRw0l009478; Wed, 5 Nov 2014 18:27:58 GMT In-Reply-To: X-Priority: 3 X-Mailer: Oracle Beehive Extensions for Outlook 2.0.1.8.2 (807160) [OL 12.0.6691.5000 (x86)] X-Source-IP: acsinet21.oracle.com [141.146.126.237] X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.4.x-2.6.x [generic] X-Received-From: 141.146.126.69 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 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 Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:176425 Archived-At: >> No.=C2=A0 Emacs should follow Common Lisp in this regard. >> http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Groups/AI/html/cltl/clm/node141.html >> #SECTION001800000000000000000 > > Could we at least add the `seq-' variants as aliases? > It would greatly improve discoverability. Don't ask me what we "could" do. I don't decide anything. My own opinion would be not to do that. If you are really worried about discoverability, then an alias that speaks to what the function really *does* is more important than an alias that calls out the main argument type. `reduce' etc. are meaningful names to anyone used to functional programming with higher-order functions, but they are not names that help discoverability for someone not used to that. Not to mention that the doc string for `reduce' here is not helpful. It just reuses the verb "reduce", without describing anything. Contrast the Common Lisp one-line description: "uses a binary operation, FUNCTION, to combine the elements of sequence bounded by START and END." (http://clhs.lisp.se/Body/f_reduce.htm) (Yes, a one-liner is not going to make things crystal clear, in any case.) --- And again, we should, IMO, not introduce things like `some-p', which overlap with `cl-some' in functionality. Just have one such function (for each such proposed conflict), and preferably have it follow Common Lisp's lead.