Re: About "set bits"

[Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu>]

In article <mailman.23943.1365669842.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>,
 Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@gnuvola.org> wrote:

> () Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu>
> () Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:37:19 -0400
> 
>    phrases as computer or Emacs jargon, when they just have the meaning
>    the words imply.
> 
> Assuming that one can parse "set bit" as ADJ N, there is still room for
> confusion.  Being around computers for a long time, i interpret "set" as
> "having value 1", but recognize anyway that such is not universal.
> 
> For example, in the phrase "ready, set, go", the state "set" gives the
> impression of suspense, promise, potential.  The poet in me imagines how
> zero embodies that, mapping these states to -1, 0, and 1, respectively.
> 
> "But ttn, we're talking about Emacs Lisp and specifically binary data!"
> 
> Yes.  No one is born programmer or poet, yet both can hack (in) Emacs.
> What is confusion but a stretching of the mind?  What is Emacs but
> confusion, parenthesized and shared?

True, these phrases can be ambiguous. But often the context and examples 
help quite a bit in figuring out the intent. In this case, there were a 
couple of examples; "bits" tells you to think in binary, and if you 
examined the binary values of the examples it should quickly become 
apparent what was meant.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***