From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Thorsten Jolitz Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: defvar vs defconst Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 11:49:21 +0200 Message-ID: <871u6cjuce.fsf@gmail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1375476881 32588 80.91.229.3 (2 Aug 2013 20:54:41 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2013 20:54:41 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Aug 02 22:54:41 2013 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 1V5MMx-0004Cc-G3 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 02 Aug 2013 22:54:39 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:36956 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1V5MMw-0007UV-UU for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 02 Aug 2013 16:54:39 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:40796) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1V5MMM-0006y1-Cw for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 02 Aug 2013 16:54:10 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1V5MME-0005WD-VE for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 02 Aug 2013 16:54:02 -0400 Original-Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:53985) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1V5BzK-0005Ca-EO for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 02 Aug 2013 05:49:34 -0400 Original-Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1V5BzH-0006j8-LL for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 02 Aug 2013 11:49:31 +0200 Original-Received: from e178191253.adsl.alicedsl.de ([85.178.191.253]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Fri, 02 Aug 2013 11:49:31 +0200 Original-Received: from tjolitz by e178191253.adsl.alicedsl.de with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Fri, 02 Aug 2013 11:49:31 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 17 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: e178191253.adsl.alicedsl.de User-Agent: Gnus/5.130002 (Ma Gnus v0.2) Emacs/24.3 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:DVhCx30gP/3YlgRr9U7YeZaTNdg= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 80.91.229.3 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:92680 Archived-At: Hi List, when you define a variable that should not be touched/set by the user of your library (which is most likely a programmer), but will be frequently set to a new value by your own program - would you call that a VAR or a CONST? (defconst ...) signals "don't touch this", which seems to the right thing in this case, but OTOH it is a bit strange to call something a constant that not only can be changed, but will actually be changed quite often. -- cheers, Thorsten