From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Pascal J. Bourguignon" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: if vs. when vs. and: style question Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 20:27:25 +0200 Organization: Informatimago Message-ID: <87sicny7zm.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> References: <87sicvwckx.fsf@wmi.amu.edu.pl> <87wq27yvqg.fsf@debian.uxu> <8d531e99-7260-4263-ac99-09c6871e2708@googlegroups.com> <87vbhq53lf.fsf@debian.uxu> <87a8z23p23.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> <87lhilx0cf.fsf@debian.uxu> <87twx9360u.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> <0d1d19ab-06e9-462d-8867-9a49b1e232d3@googlegroups.com> <87pp7x2jav.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> <87d23s4nt4.fsf@debian.uxu> <7e8ddf8f-163a-4d16-9ce2-25b0cb3f35aa@googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1427654424 18759 80.91.229.3 (29 Mar 2015 18:40:24 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 18:40:24 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Mar 29 20:40:21 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1YcI8B-0003ON-4Y for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 29 Mar 2015 20:40:19 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:57915 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1YcI8A-0002B2-BI for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 29 Mar 2015 14:40:18 -0400 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 40 Original-X-Trace: individual.net CsyunPTNL/XBiVM+sv22sgsG0Uwqrz92s7ms5KPD9maBONGCkO Cancel-Lock: sha1:YmI0NDQyYTQ0ZTRkNzRkNjk2MzUzZGM2OTgwYjYxMTg0YzFiYTE4YQ== sha1:XtQv/Vf/93nQODBwhjqdpvJ8xCg= Face: iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAADAAAAAwAQMAAABtzGvEAAAABlBMVEUAAAD///+l2Z/dAAAA oElEQVR4nK3OsRHCMAwF0O8YQufUNIQRGIAja9CxSA55AxZgFO4coMgYrEDDQZWPIlNAjwq9 033pbOBPtbXuB6PKNBn5gZkhGa86Z4x2wE67O+06WxGD/HCOGR0deY3f9Ijwwt7rNGNf6Oac l/GuZTF1wFGKiYYHKSFAkjIo1b6sCYS1sVmFhhhahKQssRjRT90ITWUk6vvK3RsPGs+M1RuR mV+hO/VvFAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg== X-Accept-Language: fr, es, en User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3 (gnu/linux) Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:211145 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:103426 Archived-At: Rusi writes: > And even Elisp! > > *** Welcome to IELM *** Type (describe-mode) for help. > ELISP> (setq α 1 β 2 γ 3) > 3 (#o3, #x3, ?\C-c) > ELISP> (list α β γ) > (1 2 3) > > ELISP> > > How much costly was that α to type than alpha?? One backslash!! > > Add to that the fact that programs are read > - 10 times more than written during development > - 100 times more during maintenance This is a good point. And the answer to it, is that mathematicians habit of using extra alphabets, comes not from reading, but from writing. It's a kind of steno for mathematicians. Also, it denotes a lack of abstraction on their part. Abstraction is the naming of concepts. They have to use a stenographical notation because they don't give names to their concepts, so they have to write and rewrite again and again the same formulae, hence the need for short notations. This is not made for reading. (And the work of Sussman clearly shows it). What is α? What is β? Wouldn't have it been better to name those variables number-of-rows or tree-height or some other words denoting their actual meaning? -- __Pascal Bourguignon__ http://www.informatimago.com/ “The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.” -- Carl Bass CEO Autodesk