From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Emanuel Berg Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: One-off history for read-string Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2015 01:14:38 +0200 Message-ID: <87fv1zihep.fsf@debian.uxu> References: <87y4fwt3vq.fsf@mbork.pl> <87twqjpc9h.fsf@debian.uxu> <87oagrt1d0.fsf@mbork.pl> <87zj0arl88.fsf@debian.uxu> <87pp15sxqf.fsf@debian.uxu> <87h9mhbp26.fsf@mbork.pl> <87612wr72k.fsf@debian.uxu> <87mvw8z9fg.fsf@mbork.pl> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1443395724 4149 80.91.229.3 (27 Sep 2015 23:15:24 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2015 23:15:24 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Sep 28 01:15:12 2015 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 1ZgL9x-0000Jq-3d for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 28 Sep 2015 01:15:09 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:59335 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZgL9w-0004aN-SK for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 27 Sep 2015 19:15:08 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:60380) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZgL9k-0004aF-9X for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sun, 27 Sep 2015 19:14:57 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZgL9g-0007u0-VM for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sun, 27 Sep 2015 19:14:56 -0400 Original-Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:36071) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZgL9g-0007rQ-OC for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Sun, 27 Sep 2015 19:14:52 -0400 Original-Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1ZgL9c-0008D1-U0 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 28 Sep 2015 01:14:49 +0200 Original-Received: from nl106-137-244.student.uu.se ([130.243.137.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Mon, 28 Sep 2015 01:14:48 +0200 Original-Received: from embe8573 by nl106-137-244.student.uu.se with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Mon, 28 Sep 2015 01:14:48 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Mail-Followup-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-Lines: 64 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: nl106-137-244.student.uu.se Mail-Copies-To: never User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.4 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:Rn5lGAorleyrqogC211d4ghkh1s= 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:107378 Archived-At: Marcin Borkowski writes: > In my code, it is just > > (let ((comment-history ...)) ...) > > I'd be thankful if you could come up with a better, > non-generic name. But I don't see the point in doing > that: the scope of the name is limited to one > let-form, whose body is one read-string invocation. > It's pretty much self-explanatory. On that level it is nothing to argue about. Modules, and functions, and variables that are made public by means of the documentation and help system, there is where it matters and one should think twice. Nothing to say you can't start practice at the `let' level, and that attitude will bottom-up eventually lead to better and more editable code, for sure, but it is nothing to argue about. >> Still, there is no gain removing it unless it does >> any harm. > > Yes, there is. The DRY principle. Also, it does some > harm: the (server-side) history _can (and frequently > is) be changed by other tools_, and then the > (Emacs-side) one would be _wrong_. DRY (don't repeat yourself) is "aimed at reducing repetition of information" [1] but there is also the principle of redundancy as a good thing (e.g., RAID, memory hierarchy, even larger systems as once Usenet). But here, neither DRY nor redundancy-yes-please apply what I can see because the client history shouldn't be used, so it doesn't matter what it is. If something doesn't help, but doesn't harm either, it shouldn't be removed/disabled as the only outcomes of that are neutral (OK, still no help/harm) or negative (ouch! a bug introduced in removing/disabling it, unsuspected consequences for some other component, unsuspected loss of usefulness in some not-thought-of future use case, etc.). > It's not that I want it or not; it just works that > way. (But I want it, too, btw.) It is a service I'm > not an author of, nor do I control it. And there are > at least two other clients besides my Emacs one (and > I personally use at least one of them also > regularly!), and they all have a "history" feature. > And it's a good thing they do, because, it is > sometimes needed. So you have several computers and you want the history to be shared between them? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_repeat_yourself -- underground experts united http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573