Re: Software/HD ecology

[Anil <anil@null.invalid>]

 Stefan Monnier <foo@acm.com> wrote:

> >>>>> "Ajanta" == Ajanta  <ajanta@no.spam> writes:
> > When I run a command like "ls -l file" I can get a lot of information
> > about a file's type, size, ownership, date created/modified.  Whether
> > that qualifies as a "log" to somebody or not is a rather dull semantic
> > issue.  The system does store and update information on files.
> 
> These kinds of info are more akin to `state'.  One major difference between
> `state' and `log' is that a `log' is `append only'.  The info you describe
> is always kept uptodate but you can't know what it was before the last
> modification, so it's very clearly not a `log'.

I worry about many things, but this would be rather low on my list.  If
something came with emacs, it remains with emacs. It doesn't become a
MS Office file!  What *are* you talking about?

> Maybe it's dull, but it's not subtle.  If you don't know what word to use,
> just use "info" or "thing" so you won't mislead readers.

I apologize.  I didn't mean to mislead anyone. When I said unix logs
information, a few posts above, I was writing English and hoped people
would read it as English. How exactly were you misled, though? 

Your suggestion is questionable too: "info" could also have technical
meaning to someone. Probably does. I see no alternative to relying on
other people's common sense to read English as English. 

By the way, you had claimed elsewhere that Emacs files are
well-localized in the file systems. You didn't respond to my post that
on my system I find (just for the *name* emacs, not necessarily all
emacs-specific files):

   /usr/bin/emacs
   /usr/info/emacs
   /usr/libexec/emacs
   /usr/local/bin/emacs
   /usr/share/emacs
   /usr/share/info/emacs

The problem is not one program, emacs or something else. The problem is
fifty or hundred programs, each installing itself in a few places, each
doing so just a little differently. Then, without a standard
"uninstall" culture (which, someone did assure us, is becoming common),
we have a recipe for confusion.

Anil