From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Thien-Thi Nguyen Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Documentation for car and cdr Date: 25 Jan 2006 19:25:31 -0500 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1138235308 27502 80.91.229.2 (26 Jan 2006 00:28:28 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 00:28:28 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Jan 26 01:28:20 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1F1uzd-0006tp-Fa for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 26 Jan 2006 01:28:05 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1F1v2O-0005jq-JQ for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 25 Jan 2006 19:30:56 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1F1uzz-0004lB-32 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 25 Jan 2006 19:28:27 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1F1uzw-0004j4-QO for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 25 Jan 2006 19:28:26 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1F1uzw-0004ix-ED for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 25 Jan 2006 19:28:24 -0500 Original-Received: from [207.245.121.136] (helo=mail.agora-net.com) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA:32) (Exim 4.52) id 1F1uxP-0002gL-TT for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 25 Jan 2006 19:25:48 -0500 Original-Received: from ttn by mail.agora-net.com with local (Exim 4.50) id 1F1ux9-00054D-L3; Wed, 25 Jan 2006 19:25:31 -0500 Original-To: Alan Mackenzie In-Reply-To: Original-Lines: 22 User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.4 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: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:49556 Archived-At: Alan Mackenzie writes: > Because that would force the poor hacker to go and look > somewhere else. Having to go and look somewhere else is always > a pain in the posterior, particularly when a one-liner > explanation is all that is sought. if a "hacker" feels "forced" to search widely due to not understanding something, then that is a poor hacker indeed! a righteous hacker (fledgling or otherwise) would happily snort the challenging docstring like the gateway drug it is, disappear for a few days imbibing more in-depth documentation, and reappear later wielding `M-x report-emacs-bug' on those bits, instead (if need be). we can drop (or ignore) the hacker mystique if we want, but it's easier to tell ordinary programmers: try to emulate the hackers. luckily in this case, that is the best advice to give. climb the trunk feet skyward; dance on the leaves but hold on to the root. thi