From: phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk (Phillip Lord)
To: Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>
Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org, "Kai Großjohann" <kai.grossjohann@gmx.net>
Subject: Re: DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2013 12:21:05 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <87txgk85em.fsf@zerg32.ncl.ac.uk> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <6d5df021-be1e-40a2-966a-548a7ee9deb3@default> (Drew Adams's message of "Sun, 13 Oct 2013 09:21:33 -0700")
Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:
>> with dynamic binding you can do other cool things (you can let-bind
>> a variable, then call a function which calls...and the innermost
>> function will reference the value you just bound -- so you can pass
>> parameters around without actually having to mention them on every
>> function call).
>
> Yes. Which is especially important for a heavily interactive and
> customizable program such as Emacs. Emacs users extend and otherwise
> modify or adapt the source code, and they do so sometimes on the fly
> and interactively.
I don't think this is an advantage of dynamic binding; it's just an
advantage of having lots of configuration options.
I've certainly used the feature that Kai likes, but mostly it has been
to hack around code which I do not control or do not want to change.
Nowadays, in general, I would want to advice code instead.
>> So each of the styles has their own advantage.
>
> Definitely. Those who imagine that a lexical-only approach, a la
> Scheme, would be a better way to go for Emacs are on the wrong track,
> IMHO.
I am not convinced that having two complete separate models of variable
binding is a great idea. This forces Emacs programmers to have a good
understanding of dynamic and lexical scope. If Emacs is to move more
toward lexical scope, then supporting both should be considered only to
be a stepping stone.
> Now if only Emacs Lisp had good namespace control, like Common-Lisp
> packages...
A good point, but an independent one I think!
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2013-10-14 11:21 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 18+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2013-10-12 17:56 DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding Andreas Röhler
2013-10-12 18:35 ` DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding Dmitry Gutov
2013-10-12 20:53 ` DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding Drew Adams
2013-10-13 5:09 ` DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding Thien-Thi Nguyen
2013-10-13 7:54 ` DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding Andreas Röhler
2013-10-13 13:46 ` DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding Kai Großjohann
2013-10-13 16:21 ` DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding Drew Adams
2013-10-14 11:21 ` Phillip Lord [this message]
2013-10-14 13:45 ` DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding Drew Adams
2013-10-14 16:05 ` DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding Phillip Lord
2013-10-14 21:32 ` DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding Kai Großjohann
2013-10-15 11:27 ` DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding Phillip Lord
2013-10-15 20:43 ` DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding Kai Großjohann
2013-10-16 12:57 ` DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding Phillip Lord
[not found] ` <mailman.4127.1381928277.10748.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2013-10-16 14:26 ` DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding Barry Margolin
[not found] ` <mailman.3929.1381681317.10748.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2013-10-14 11:27 ` DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding Rustom Mody
2013-10-14 11:15 ` DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding Phillip Lord
[not found] <mailman.3891.1381600459.10748.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2013-10-13 3:34 ` DynamicBindingVsLexicalBinding Barry Margolin
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