From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Drew Adams" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: RE: Word usage Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2010 11:15:47 -0800 Message-ID: <2D3825EF7031471E922841F0A32E5A22@us.oracle.com> References: <8739qlokab.fsf@lola.goethe.zz><0DD2CA23246747E0A66AA3DDBD4003E1@us.oracle.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1290971776 8451 80.91.229.12 (28 Nov 2010 19:16:16 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2010 19:16:16 +0000 (UTC) Cc: 'David Kastrup' , emacs-devel@gnu.org To: "'Stefan Monnier'" Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Nov 28 20:16:12 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PMmjL-00039f-U1 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 28 Nov 2010 20:16:12 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:47195 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PMmjL-00061D-8n for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 28 Nov 2010 14:16:11 -0500 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=52022 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PMmjF-00060p-Ob for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 28 Nov 2010 14:16:06 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PMmjE-0004wg-Ii for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 28 Nov 2010 14:16:05 -0500 Original-Received: from rcsinet10.oracle.com ([148.87.113.121]:58087) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PMmjE-0004wX-9p; Sun, 28 Nov 2010 14:16:04 -0500 Original-Received: from rcsinet15.oracle.com (rcsinet15.oracle.com [148.87.113.117]) by rcsinet10.oracle.com (Switch-3.4.2/Switch-3.4.2) with ESMTP id oASJG1xW015409 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Sun, 28 Nov 2010 19:16:03 GMT Original-Received: from acsmt355.oracle.com (acsmt355.oracle.com [141.146.40.155]) by rcsinet15.oracle.com (Switch-3.4.2/Switch-3.4.1) with ESMTP id oASIfUqp006890; Sun, 28 Nov 2010 19:16:01 GMT Original-Received: from abhmt009.oracle.com by acsmt355.oracle.com with ESMTP id 819404441290971757; Sun, 28 Nov 2010 11:15:57 -0800 Original-Received: from dradamslap1 (/10.159.220.140) by default (Oracle Beehive Gateway v4.0) with ESMTP ; Sun, 28 Nov 2010 11:15:56 -0800 X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 In-Reply-To: X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5994 Thread-Index: AcuPLXPX+t+gb4rbR3uXn71CsOCuygAATeeg X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) 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:133211 Archived-At: > > And Emacs doc should definitely use the former, not the latter. > > We should not suppose that Emacs users are familiar with > > math notation beyond the most basic (e.g. arithmetic or algebra). > > There is no reason to expect general users to be familiar with > > interval notation. > > color.el is clearly not intended for general users, Of course it is. Who is it excluding? > so the [0,1] notation seems adequate for that context. Not. It is entirely possible to follow the code and comments of color.el without necessarily being familiar with math interval notation - or at least it should be. (I assert that having still never seen the color.el code. ;-)) "Adequate"? There is no reason to use (non-Emacs) jargon when English is just as clear and is sufficiently concise. Both "must be between 0 and 1 inclusively" (suggested by David) and "N, where 0 <= N <= 1" (which I suggested) are pretty clear to everyone, and they are not particularly verbose. They are _no more verbose_ than "must be in the interval [0, 1]". You gain nothing by using the latter, and you can lose clarity for some readers. It is perverse to opt for possible confusion with no gain. (Are we showing off?) Unless you are using interval descriptions over and over, and especially a mix of interval types, there is no reason to use interval syntax here (especially without explicitly introducing it). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle