From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Sam Steingold Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: [PATCH] * etc/NEWS: Document incompatibilities introduced by record types. Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2017 10:41:12 -0500 Organization: disorganization Message-ID: References: <20171211213729.41411-1-phst@google.com> Reply-To: sds@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1513179702 1549 195.159.176.226 (13 Dec 2017 15:41:42 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2017 15:41:42 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/27.0.50 (darwin) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Dec 13 16:41:38 2017 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1eP9A9-0000CD-FS for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 13 Dec 2017 16:41:37 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:36002 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eP9AG-00013q-Jd for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 13 Dec 2017 10:41:44 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:39405) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eP9A3-00011p-47 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 13 Dec 2017 10:41:32 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eP99z-00087Z-JP for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 13 Dec 2017 10:41:31 -0500 Original-Received: from [195.159.176.226] (port=58760 helo=blaine.gmane.org) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1eP99z-00085X-CJ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 13 Dec 2017 10:41:27 -0500 Original-Received: from list by blaine.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1eP99l-0007f0-Nj for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 13 Dec 2017 16:41:13 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 30 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org X-Attribution: Sam X-Disclaimer: You should not expect anyone to agree with me. Cancel-Lock: sha1:wvK0ZuXehuum57bBKjDq5vfpuwM= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] [fuzzy] X-Received-From: 195.159.176.226 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 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" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:221001 Archived-At: > * Stefan Monnier [2017-12-12 17:20:29 -0500]: > >> If programmers are not supposed to do it, let's detect it and report >> an error when they try. That way, they will know it's an error as >> soon as they try, rather than needing to debug it to find out it's an error. > > When was the last time you saw a user try to redefine the > "integer" type? > [ I'll be happy to hear about cases in other languages than Elisp, > since otherwise it's going to be depressingly silent I'm afraid. ] What's so special about "integer"? How many other built-in types does Emacs Lisp have? Can you list them all by heart? Can everyone? What about many different packages which may redefine each other's types? Especially since Emacs Lisp does not have the Common Lisp-style package system, and it does not enforce the prefix conventions. It seems to me that warning on redefining a type (or defining a type with a name which already names a type) is a very good idea. Emacs Lisp already warns on redefining functions with a different signature. Why not warn about types? Thanks. -- Sam Steingold (http://sds.podval.org/) on darwin Ns 10.3.1504 http://steingoldpsychology.com http://www.childpsy.net https://jihadwatch.org http://camera.org http://memri.org http://www.memritv.org At war time "salt of the earth" becomes "cannon fodder".