From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Barry Margolin Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: replacing a certain element in a list with another Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 15:18:28 GMT Organization: Level(3) Communications, Woburn, MA Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Message-ID: <8jSlb.186$lK3.106@news.level3.com> References: <9PBlb.171$lK3.18@news.level3.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1066924027 14718 80.91.224.253 (23 Oct 2003 15:47:07 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 15:47:07 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Oct 23 17:47:05 2003 Return-path: Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1AChg1-0004wW-00 for ; Thu, 23 Oct 2003 17:47:05 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1AChfh-0005ZI-Eh for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 23 Oct 2003 11:46:45 -0400 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!nycmny1-snh1.gtei.net!crtntx1-snh1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!news.level3.com.POSTED!53ab2750!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Mail-Copies-To: never X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test72 (19 April 1999) Originator: barmar@genuity.net (Barry Margolin) Original-Lines: 19 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 171.78.176.30 Original-X-Trace: news.level3.com 1066922308 171.78.176.30 (Thu, 23 Oct 2003 15:18:28 GMT) Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 15:18:28 GMT Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:117557 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2 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 Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:13489 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:13489 In article , Roland Winkler wrote: >It might be helpful to add a comment to the docstring or info page >for nreverse saying that its argument is modified such that >afterwards it is a 1-element list containing the last element of the >reversed list. Why? Then if someone came up with a way to do the reversing efficiently in a different way, they wouldn't be able to change it, because the documentation would lock them into the current behavior. The documentation should only specify the parts of the behavior that users can depend on, not incidental results of a particular implementation. -- Barry Margolin, barry.margolin@level3.com Level(3), Woburn, MA *** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups. Please DON'T copy followups to me -- I'll assume it wasn't posted to the group.