From: Fren Zeee <frenzeee@gmail.com>
To: "Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@xemacs.org>
Cc: Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche@math.ntnu.no>, emacs-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Comment on Emacs Lisp Introduction
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2010 20:19:39 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <AANLkTi=pvJwmPKjXSuH55D99whnGMFU0+MhMRz7jnoq9@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <8739uwtlzh.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp>
On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 8:26 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen@xemacs.org> wrote:
> Fren Zeee writes:
>
> > I am not complaining. Its just that I dont have it, and need to find
> > source matching this old executable, which means that it will take
> > some time to search for the particular freeze or tar file if it is
> > still on the web.
>
> Huh. Why are you so focused on "old"? If you are an historian, you'd
> better enjoy such searches because that's what historians do. If
> you're a programmer, though, old versions are of no particular
> interest unless you already know them well enough for forward
> differences to have meaning to you.
It appears that software is developed both outside-in and inside-out
at various times and the oldest most primitive version has the
simplest structure, and least features. IMHO it would be for
educational purposes, not just historical.
For a professor like you, who knows a lot more, perhaps, can start
anywhere in the field, but not for a newbie like myself.
> If you're interested in a particular function, M-x disassemble.
Show me an example where disassemble would help in understanding the
code. I think it gives VM code, not lisp code.
Give a walk-thru concrete example of several functions that illustrate
how disassemble would help understanding the code.
> Otherwise, why do you refuse to take the advice to use a modern
> version? The basic architecture hasn't changed since the GNU rewrite.
OK, so give me a diagram which shows the scanner of LISP interpreter,
and in addition some comments for writing the primitives.
> Functions that are more complex now have become that way for a reason;
> those reasons are worth studying. Many functions are *not* more
> complex in themselves than they were then, but have become simpler
> because they delegate subtasks that have increased in complexity to
> other functions. It's easier to work backward from modern versions which
> are well-developed based on better abstractions (cf. Michael Stokes'
> comment about Green's Theorem: "It is trivial. It is trivial because
> the concepts have been well-defined. That definition took decades."
> -- or something like that, I don't have _Calculus on Manifolds_ handy).
I know what you mean but you cant stuff that into the mouth of a
newbie before knowing something of vector calculus.
Franz Xe
It would certainly help if I can get some debug sessions from you and
the other gentleman who gave me the initial advice on playing with
emacs using its own debug and gdb, a typescript file.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2010-08-04 3:19 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 19+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
[not found] <AANLkTinmXz=n0L4RS0SHRiJcA-Ob135RrKEzrZ=GvjDy@mail.gmail.com>
2010-07-29 22:22 ` Comment on Emacs Lisp Introduction Robert J. Chassell
[not found] ` <AANLkTi=SAbC_y+O3simX2dSLFYcpyVxPR-yZYsCMje42@mail.gmail.com>
2010-07-30 14:44 ` Robert J. Chassell
2010-07-31 7:43 ` Fren Zeee
2010-07-31 8:01 ` David Kastrup
2010-07-31 19:33 ` Fren Zeee
2010-07-31 19:34 ` Fren Zeee
2010-07-31 20:06 ` Drew Adams
2010-07-31 20:14 ` Óscar Fuentes
2010-08-01 6:36 ` David Kastrup
2010-08-01 12:06 ` Harald Hanche-Olsen
2010-08-02 8:26 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2010-08-02 18:27 ` Fren Zeee
2010-08-03 3:26 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2010-08-04 3:19 ` Fren Zeee [this message]
2010-08-04 5:25 ` Stephen J. Turnbull
2010-08-04 9:22 ` David Kastrup
2010-08-05 20:13 ` Fren Zeee
2010-08-05 20:27 ` Fren Zeee
2010-08-01 12:50 ` Óscar Fuentes
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