From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: delete-other-frames Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2016 17:45:23 -0400 Message-ID: References: <<57BC072F.9070704@gmx.at>> <<83k2f7fugv.fsf@gnu.org> <57BD63A9.8040502@gmx.at>> <<57BEB772.60100@gmx.at> <83inuoewjy.fsf@gnu.org>> <> <49a2a9c7-8573-4f07-897f-3eb444679d8a@default> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Utf-8 X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1472334351 21202 195.159.176.226 (27 Aug 2016 21:45:51 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2016 21:45:51 +0000 (UTC) Cc: eliz@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Drew Adams Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Aug 27 23:45:47 2016 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1bdlQA-00050d-G9 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 27 Aug 2016 23:45:46 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:37289 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bdlQ8-0004oR-1G for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 27 Aug 2016 17:45:44 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:45811) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bdlPz-0004n3-2l for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 27 Aug 2016 17:45:36 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bdlPx-0008DQ-P9 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 27 Aug 2016 17:45:34 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:43011) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bdlPq-0008BN-6d; Sat, 27 Aug 2016 17:45:26 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1bdlPn-0005Ch-I4; Sat, 27 Aug 2016 17:45:23 -0400 In-reply-to: <49a2a9c7-8573-4f07-897f-3eb444679d8a@default> (message from Drew Adams on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 23:31:19 -0700 (PDT)) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:206838 Archived-At: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] > 1. If there is only one frame in the discussion, and @var{f} > is a name for it, then "delete the frame, @var{f}" is correct. You're right. I must have been in a daze. > But if there might be more than one frame in the discussion, > and @var{f} is the one we are concerned with at present, then > this is correct: "delete the frame @var{f}". (Note: no comma.) > And so is this: "delete frame @var{f}". Yes. Exactly. A comparable example in algebra is "Square the number x." > 2. I think Eli was talking about something different, but > related: the fact that in Emacs doc the name of a parameter > is often chosen to be a type name, Grammatically, it does not matter whether the argument's name is f or frame. In the first case, the sentence should be, "delete the frame @var{f}", shortened to "delete frame @var{f}". In the second case, the sentence should be, "delete the frame @var{frame}", shortened to "delete frame @var{frame}". Whether the argument name is the same as the description, or not, has no effect. and a convention is to > omit the type noun to which the restrictive appositive > applies and let the parameter name stand alone. > IOW, if the name of the individual echoes the name of the > type then we can get by with just the individual name. It is grammatical to omit the description of the argument, and use just its name. There must be no article, in this usage. > Example: > Just "copy FILE to DIRECTORY", Here FILE and DIRECTORY are both names of argument values, so they must have no articles. "copy F to D" is equally grammatical, but it is clear only if the reader already knows that F is a file and D is a directory. Otherwise, we need to say so. "copy the FILE to the DIRECTORY" is grammatically incorrect because you can't put an article on a name. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation (gnu.org, fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (internethalloffame.org) Skype: No way! See stallman.org/skype.html.