From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Barry Margolin Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: About "set bits" Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2013 11:19:54 -0400 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Message-ID: References: <20130410214627.6ca217f53415c0c6d1837edd@gmail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1365737725 9616 80.91.229.3 (12 Apr 2013 03:35:25 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2013 03:35:25 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Apr 12 05:35:29 2013 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1UQUln-0004JU-Pf for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 12 Apr 2013 05:35:23 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:48471 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UQUln-0007yq-CZ for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 11 Apr 2013 23:35:23 -0400 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!news.kjsl.com!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!mx05.eternal-september.org!barmar.motzarella.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 33 Injection-Info: barmar.motzarella.org; posting-host="2be9e9f5dd9af768b8861af71b85fc28"; logging-data="1794"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/gHNq0VopqjUUf2UMpYsaq" User-Agent: MT-NewsWatcher/3.5.3b3 (Intel Mac OS X) Cancel-Lock: sha1:TzQqvkovtaidKEBe66EcId5ID9E= Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:197836 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Thu, 11 Apr 2013 23:35:06 -0400 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 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 Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:90109 Archived-At: In article , Thien-Thi Nguyen wrote: > () Barry Margolin > () 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 ***