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: e and pi Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2010 08:11:02 -0700 Message-ID: <54579AB56C064DFC9C36C8F914E03830@us.oracle.com> References: <8739t9xpt2.fsf@stupidchicken.com><874odoweqm.fsf@stupidchicken.com> <83hbhnz7z2.fsf@gnu.org> 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 1284822746 16472 80.91.229.12 (18 Sep 2010 15:12:26 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2010 15:12:26 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: "'Eli Zaretskii'" , "'Helmut Eller'" Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Sep 18 17:12:23 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 1Owz5T-0003HJ-4t for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 18 Sep 2010 17:12:23 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:59993 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Owz5S-0004P5-GV for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 18 Sep 2010 11:12:22 -0400 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=34845 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Owz5N-0004N6-MW for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 18 Sep 2010 11:12:18 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Owz5M-00030i-Gl for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 18 Sep 2010 11:12:17 -0400 Original-Received: from rcsinet10.oracle.com ([148.87.113.121]:37054) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Owz5M-00030b-Br; Sat, 18 Sep 2010 11:12:16 -0400 Original-Received: from acsinet15.oracle.com (acsinet15.oracle.com [141.146.126.227]) by rcsinet10.oracle.com (Switch-3.4.2/Switch-3.4.2) with ESMTP id o8IFCC3F023673 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Sat, 18 Sep 2010 15:12:14 GMT Original-Received: from acsmt355.oracle.com (acsmt355.oracle.com [141.146.40.155]) by acsinet15.oracle.com (Switch-3.4.2/Switch-3.4.1) with ESMTP id o8I82ZA8022214; Sat, 18 Sep 2010 15:12:12 GMT Original-Received: from abhmt010.oracle.com by acsmt353.oracle.com with ESMTP id 609771851284822615; Sat, 18 Sep 2010 08:10:15 -0700 Original-Received: from dradamslap1 (/10.159.218.112) by default (Oracle Beehive Gateway v4.0) with ESMTP ; Sat, 18 Sep 2010 08:10:15 -0700 X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 Thread-Index: ActXGG2cOuTHktaNTCyt/+uluzflvAAKo9bg In-Reply-To: <83hbhnz7z2.fsf@gnu.org> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5994 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:130414 Archived-At: > > I once had a function with an argument called system-name. Suddenly > > Emacs started to complain that some files are locked by > > some other user. How many people now that system-name is a global > > variable and used by the file-locking code? > > > > The lesson is that Emacs should not pre-define global variables with > > names that are likely candidates for local variables. > > What you describe as a big surprise is actually known to every C/C++ > programmer: some names are "reserved by the implementation" and should > not be used by the application code. And can you imagine the fun if C/C++ reserved the name `e'? ;-) Please read what the OP wrote: "should not pre-define global variables with names that are _likely candidates for local variables_". That likelihood is very high for `e', whether in C/C++ or Emacs Lisp. It is presumably not so high for the implementation-reserved names of C/C++. (And since when did their design become a guide for Emacs Lisp?)