Re: Differences between Elisp and Lisp

[Phillip Lord <p.lord@russet.org.uk>]

>>>>> "Kent" == Kent M Pitman <pitman@world.std.com> writes:

  >> Perhaps I am confusing things here, but I always assumed that the
  >> problem with dynamic binding is that it makes odd things happen.

  Kent> You're saying the same thing as I was saying only in different
  Kent> words.  Both the efficiency loss and this other effect you
  Kent> cite (accessibility from outside) are effects of having the
  Kent> name be accessible from the outside. 

Yes, you are correct here. For the user within emacs, its just that
the effect on the programmer is probably more of an issue that the
optimisation. 

Obviously if fixing the former, gives you the latter for free, then
this is a good thing. 


  >> Optimisation might be an issue as well of course, but processors
  >> are fast these days! Its nice, but not essential.

  Kent> This sort of assumes a single-user machine.  Server machines
  Kent> can be overloaded regardless of capacity. 

A reasonable assumption in the context of emacs!

  Kent> You might assume emacs is not a server, but one of the good
  Kent> effects of merging CL and emacs might be that emacs could do
  Kent> more tasks that are often relegated to other programs and that
  Kent> those other programs could get some of the services emacs
  Kent> usually does.  So the lines might get blurred.

This is certainly true. I can imagine a emacs based web server would
be quite nice, as you could use all the emacs based formatting
abilities.

I think we are in furious agreement here!

Phil