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From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
To: Jim Porter <jporterbugs@gmail.com>
Cc: eliz@gnu.org, 66756@debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#66756: 30.0.50; [PATCH] Improve discussion of 'let' in Elisp Introduction manual
Date: Sun, 03 Dec 2023 22:08:37 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <E1r9zK1-0003MB-PT@fencepost.gnu.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <0fe9fc29-11d5-2983-8970-3f4b7969df2d@gmail.com> (message from Jim Porter on Thu, 30 Nov 2023 13:03:52 -0800)

[[[ 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. ]]]

  > +means his house, not yours.  (Symbols used in argument lists work the
  > +same way.

Maybe that sentence should be more explicit about which symbols it
refers to and which aspect of "working".  Perhaps like this:

   (The symbols used to name function arguments are bound as local variables
   in exactly the same way.)

This statement

      However, outside
    +of the @code{let} body (such as when calling a function that was
    +defined elsewhere), calling @code{setq} for a variable named by the
    +@code{let} expression will @emph{not} affect that local variable.

is true only in lexical binding.  With dynamic binding, such a setq
_will_ set the let's local variable (in the simplest cases).

    +Emacs Lisp supports two different ways of binding variable names to
    +their values.  These ways affect the parts of your program where a
    +particular binding is validscop.

Typo there.

    +As we discussed before, when you create local variables with
    +@code{let} under lexical binding, those variables are valid only
    +within the body of the @code{let} expression.

Where is this previous discussion?  I don't see it.  The distinction
of dynamic vs lexical was first introduced two paragraphs above,
and its effects on binding have not been discussed yet.

Is this a reference to the following?

      However, outside
    +of the @code{let} body (such as when calling a function that was
    +defined elsewhere), calling @code{setq} for a variable named by the
    +@code{let} expression will @emph{not} affect that local variable.

That may be meant as a discussion of local binding with lexical scoping,
but it isn't one, since it doesn't say "lexical scoping."

      (On the other hand, if
    +you call a function defined within a @code{let} body,

I recommend "that was defined within"; it is more clear.

    +Under dynamic binding, the rules are different: instead, when you use
    +@code{let}, the local variables you've created are valid during
    +execution of the let expression.

@code needed here.

      When you bind a variable
    +with @code{let}, it puts the new binding you've specified on the top
    +of the stack,

For clarity, I suggest "bind a variable dynamically" or something to reiterate
that this sentence is only about dynamic binding.  Without that, the reader
could take it to be independent of which mode is currently selected.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)







  parent reply	other threads:[~2023-12-04  3:08 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 33+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2023-10-26  5:54 bug#66756: 30.0.50; [PATCH] Improve discussion of 'let' in Elisp Introduction manual Jim Porter
2023-10-26 18:30 ` Jim Porter
2023-10-29 16:38   ` Richard Stallman
2023-10-29 17:18     ` Drew Adams
2023-11-18  2:09     ` Jim Porter
2023-11-19  3:39       ` Richard Stallman
2023-11-19  5:25         ` Jim Porter
2023-11-19  5:30           ` Jim Porter
2023-11-19  8:38             ` Michael Albinus
2023-11-19 20:17               ` Jim Porter
2023-11-19 23:05                 ` Jim Porter
2023-11-20 13:28                   ` Michael Albinus
2023-11-23  2:57             ` Richard Stallman
2023-11-23 21:04               ` Jim Porter
2023-11-24  7:06                 ` Eli Zaretskii
2023-11-24  9:01                   ` Jim Porter
2023-11-24 11:41                     ` Eli Zaretskii
2023-11-24 21:46                       ` Jim Porter
2023-11-25  7:51                         ` Eli Zaretskii
2023-11-30 21:03                           ` Jim Porter
2023-12-01  8:29                             ` Eli Zaretskii
2023-12-04  3:08                               ` Richard Stallman
2023-12-04  3:08                             ` Richard Stallman [this message]
2023-12-04  4:34                               ` Jim Porter
2023-12-10 19:36                                 ` Jim Porter
2023-12-16 23:10                                   ` Stefan Kangas
2023-12-17 20:47                                     ` Jim Porter
2024-01-09 18:40                                       ` Jim Porter
2023-12-04  3:08                             ` Richard Stallman
2023-11-04  8:27   ` Eli Zaretskii
2023-11-04 16:44     ` Jim Porter
2023-11-06  2:29 ` Richard Stallman
2023-11-06  2:29 ` Richard Stallman

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