From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Andy Wingo Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Why there is no char type? Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 22:19:54 +0100 Message-ID: References: <87ipywqwx7.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <87ei9k2zot.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> <87ei9jr5kf.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1292447765 22901 80.91.229.12 (15 Dec 2010 21:16:05 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:16:05 +0000 (UTC) Cc: stephen@xemacs.org, dak@gnu.org, Leo , emacs-devel@gnu.org To: rms@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Dec 15 22:16:00 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PSyhV-0000Jn-9n for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 15 Dec 2010 22:15:53 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:57066 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PSyhU-0002sE-Ju for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:15:52 -0500 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=38839 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PSyhO-0002rm-JH for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:15:48 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PSyhN-0004V6-Ek for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:15:46 -0500 Original-Received: from a-pb-sasl-sd.pobox.com ([64.74.157.62]:39811 helo=sasl.smtp.pobox.com) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PSyhK-0004UJ-DT; Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:15:42 -0500 Original-Received: from sasl.smtp.pobox.com (unknown [127.0.0.1]) by a-pb-sasl-sd.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4C1A22482; Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:16:08 -0500 (EST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed; d=pobox.com; h=from:to:cc :subject:references:date:in-reply-to:message-id:mime-version :content-type; s=sasl; bh=FwD7EkuUuVVdEpSbYKegDSY8GRE=; b=h26uu5 7igiS/pOdC0IHJS7NahxFSQqSRkFS06qbOkDZ66xhUtmdoBlTIvIG+xke0jwHKjW h85EdUwmWjunywnHivc5pIYWWiKpdKfRon5DimTFQXAlU+zqsVT9n1jOy0ODGMdR Ci46puF/A6HXsULXjnIrdSedmEFmIxJWsTDuE= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=pobox.com; h=from:to:cc :subject:references:date:in-reply-to:message-id:mime-version :content-type; q=dns; s=sasl; b=DfV9hLUBBK4qI2LJG4YCViiFen670NHc ZiCtbZDpXxtGJvPxMu5CHPfcyKmF8njOk5wd0UTCTl/6bfnWSxf15NLeLY4GLr1C HPBe0lamO4mABIbBURzYV4xwvW752MQcnh5KEQnrCOgFSgktQAUR6GVORu13xOlQ ShcI83JEURo= Original-Received: from a-pb-sasl-sd.pobox.com (unknown [127.0.0.1]) by a-pb-sasl-sd.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 077082481; Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:16:03 -0500 (EST) Original-Received: from unquote.localdomain (unknown [90.164.198.39]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by a-pb-sasl-sd.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 9645D247F; Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:15:58 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: (Richard Stallman's message of "Wed, 15 Dec 2010 13:40:34 -0500") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.2 (gnu/linux) X-Pobox-Relay-ID: 8620F07A-0890-11E0-BDD5-C4BE9B774584-02397024!a-pb-sasl-sd.pobox.com X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Solaris 10 (beta) 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:133723 Archived-At: On Wed 15 Dec 2010 19:40, Richard Stallman writes: > Then main reason I did not add a char type is that it would require a > bunch of new primitives, adding permanently to the complexity of Emacs > Lisp and its documentation. As well as complexity of Lisp code that > uses characters. FWIW, I have not felt that a character type in Scheme was a burden in any way; and it's nice to have a human-readable and -writable external representation. >From a selfish, wanting-emacs-on-guile POV, it would be a good thing for emacs to have a character type. Obviously that's predicated on there being someone willing to do the work, and suitable back-compatibility support. Guile's characters have space for buckybits, I think (space we don't currently use, I mean). Andy -- http://wingolog.org/