Re: learning Emacs Lisp

[Andreas Politz <politza@fh-trier.de>]

Richard Riley wrote:
> Andreas Politz <politza@fh-trier.de> writes:
> 
>> Richard Riley wrote:
>>> Tassilo Horn <tassilo@member.fsf.org> writes:
>>>
>>>> Richard Riley <rileyrgdev@gmail.com> writes:
>>>>
>>>> Hi Richard,
>>>>
>>>>> [...] but Xah Lee is an excellent resource with carefully argued
>>>>> points and practical approach to, amongst other things, eLisp usage.
>>>> This is a joke, isn't it?
>>> Not in the slightest. I can only assume the bit you snipped about some
>>> more established Emacs users disagreeing with him applies to you? Or the
>>> tone suggests that.
>>>
>>>> When learning a language it's better to take a look at polished code
>>>> that uses this language's idioms.  Xah's on a crusade against even the
>>>> most basic stuff like correct indentation...
>>> By correct indentation I guess you mean the established custom? I cant
>>> disagree that customs are good but personally I think the established
>>> custom in elisp is rather awkward to the extreme. Not that i dont try to
>>> adhere to it :-; But even looking around the C world we see various
>>> indentation standards and everyone is entitled to their view. A constant
>>> style is, of course, better for everyone although it does not
>>> immediately mean that constant style is the best. As a programmer for
>>> years I can not even begin to understand how and why eLisp bracketing
>>> standards became as they did other than maybe to save screen real estate
>>> in the VT100 type days. FWIW, I think saving space is better for the eye
>>> too in some ways but I find "at a glance" analysis of most eLisp code
>>> almost impossible because of the standard of grouping all closing
>>> brackets.
>>>
>> That darn old emacs again ! Seriously this has more to do with lisp in
>> general than specifically with elisp. I doubt you'd find any _one_ serious
>> programmer or author in the whole lisp community who proposes this kind of
>> style ( each closing paren on a seperate line ).
> 
> You will notice that I did not propose it. I said the standard is hard
> for me to read as someone who is not an eLisp magician. 

Yes, I misunderstood you. I thought you were impying this, by the comparison with C.

-ap

I still do not
> understand (other than the reasons I postulated about above) why it is
> as it is. I find it very hard to indent and match (ok, emacs helps with
> matching brackets), but would find it very difficult to read from a
> printout for example. 

But this is more my lack of experience
> possibly. All hindrances can become less so with experience. But would
> aligned brackets really hurt anyone? I dont think so. It is convention
> (and convention is a good thing at times) which has the style as it
> is. Or?