From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Kickstarter for Emacs Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:01:13 -0400 Message-ID: References: <87wr5dfm9v.fsf@gnu.org> <87398118ys.fsf@thinkpad.tsdh.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1335232884 21963 80.91.229.3 (24 Apr 2012 02:01:24 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 02:01:24 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Phil Hagelberg Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Apr 24 04:01:24 2012 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@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 1SMV4D-0008W0-MN for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 24 Apr 2012 04:01:21 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:54852 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SMV4C-0007p0-Vr for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:01:20 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:45865) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SMV49-0007op-QK for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:01:19 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SMV48-0001XA-3j for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:01:17 -0400 Original-Received: from ironport-out.teksavvy.com ([206.248.143.162]:12072) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SMV47-0001WK-Vn for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:01:16 -0400 X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: ApYIACxOgk/O+Jnc/2dsb2JhbABDuCMDgQyBCIIJAQEEAQ5IDxQQCzQSFBgNJIgcBbYyi2GEeQSkRYFdgwM X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.75,391,1330923600"; d="scan'208";a="176389317" Original-Received: from 206-248-153-220.dsl.teksavvy.com (HELO pastel.home) ([206.248.153.220]) by ironport2-out.teksavvy.com with ESMTP/TLS/ADH-AES256-SHA; 23 Apr 2012 22:01:13 -0400 Original-Received: by pastel.home (Postfix, from userid 20848) id 91A8A58EB0; Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:01:13 -0400 (EDT) In-Reply-To: (Phil Hagelberg's message of "Sun, 22 Apr 2012 22:17:22 -0700") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.0.94 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 206.248.143.162 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 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-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:149964 Archived-At: >> The problem still remains: what would be the benefit? > I must confess this is difficult for me to express, simply because > it's something I've taken for granted for so long; it's like being > asked why I like garbage collection. Anyhow, the most obvious benefit > would be that you have a chance at writing code that you know will > function correctly while run concurrently. =) I'm an academic working in functional programming and type systems, so you don't have to convince me of the general virtues of side-effect-free code. So my question is specifically in the context of Emacs where you need to balance the theoretical benefits against the downsides (mostly incompatibilities and efforts that could be spent elsewhere). Stefan