From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Karl Chen Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Documentation for car and cdr Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 16:04:11 -0800 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: quarl+dated+1138665503.df20ee@nospam.quarl.org NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1138234053 23439 80.91.229.2 (26 Jan 2006 00:07:33 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 00:07:33 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Jan 26 01:07:32 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 1F1ufj-0001X1-Lf for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 26 Jan 2006 01:07:31 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1F1uiU-0000ub-W3 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 25 Jan 2006 19:10:23 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1F1ug7-0000VP-2j for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 25 Jan 2006 19:07:55 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1F1ug5-0000Uc-B7 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 25 Jan 2006 19:07:53 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1F1ug4-0000UW-Fs for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 25 Jan 2006 19:07:52 -0500 Original-Received: from [80.91.229.2] (helo=ciao.gmane.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA:32) (Exim 4.52) id 1F1udX-000148-Jd for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 25 Jan 2006 19:05:15 -0500 Original-Received: from list by ciao.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.43) id 1F1ud2-0000yL-QC for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 26 Jan 2006 01:04:44 +0100 Original-Received: from roar.cs.berkeley.edu ([128.32.35.215]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Thu, 26 Jan 2006 01:04:44 +0100 Original-Received: from quarl by roar.cs.berkeley.edu with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Thu, 26 Jan 2006 01:04:44 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-Lines: 20 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: roar.cs.berkeley.edu X-Quack-Archive: 1 Gmane-From: 1 User-Agent: Gnus/5.110004 (No Gnus v0.4) Emacs/22.0.50 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:sQ1LIPLqNUwpNnAXJv8Bxi/VucI= 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:49553 Archived-At: I agree with Alan Mackenzie's position that the docstring needs to explain. Yes, "car returns the first element of a list" is wrong. But that doesn't mean we can't add something good, helpful in addition to the precise statement that experienced lisp hackers want ("the car function returns the car"). The information could be in the manual. Is there anything currently? I couldn't find any nodes on "cons cells" or "cdr". The Wikipedia (licensed under GFDL) entry for "Car and cdr" is reasonably introductory and seems accurate as far as explaining the special case of using of car/cdr in lists as first/butfirst. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_and_cdr -- Karl 2006-01-25 15:58