Re: Software/HD ecology

[Lee Sau Dan <danlee@informatik.uni-freiburg.de>]

>>>>> "Anil" == Anil  <anil@null.invalid> writes:

    >> These kinds of info are more akin to `state'.  One major
    >> difference between `state' and `log' is that a `log' is `append
    >> only'.  The info you describe is always kept uptodate but you
    >> can't know what it was before the last modification, so it's
    >> very clearly not a `log'.

    Anil> I worry about many things, but this would be rather low on
    Anil> my list.  If something came with emacs, it remains with
    Anil> emacs. It doesn't become a MS Office file!  What *are* you
    Anil> talking about?

He's talking about what "log"  means in the field of computing.  "log"
means  kind of historical  record.  Since  history cannot  be changed,
this means log files are never modified, only appended.


    Anil> I apologize.  I didn't mean to mislead anyone. When I said
    Anil> unix logs information, a few posts above, I was writing
    Anil> English and hoped people would read it as English. How
    Anil> exactly were you misled, though?

Even in plain  English, a "log book" is a book  where you keep records
of past, historical events.  It is abnormal to erase an entry in a log
book to make room to record new  entries.  You open a new log book for
that.  New entries are always added to the log in the empty space, not
by replacing existing entries.   Erasing old entries would counter the
purpose of a log book.

So, the file info (e.g. size, mod. time, owner) cannot be classifed as
any kind of "log".


    Anil> Your suggestion is questionable too: "info" could also have
    Anil> technical meaning to someone. 

No, unless  you're talking about GNU  info.  The word  "info" is vague
and hence suitable here.


    Anil> Probably does. I see no alternative to relying on other
    Anil> people's common sense to read English as English.

We do read English as English.  I can't see any reason for calling the
_file  attributes_ "log".  Calling  it "info"  is OK,  as "info"  is a
vague term.


    Anil> By the way, you had claimed elsewhere that Emacs files are
    Anil> well-localized in the file systems. You didn't respond to my
    Anil> post that on my system I find (just for the *name* emacs,
    Anil> not necessarily all emacs-specific files):

Like most GNU  softwares, Emacs gives you (or your  sys admin) lots of
flexibilities,  including the  flexibility  of doing  it  in a  weird,
strange,  non-standard  way.  But  that  doesn't  mean  Emacs MUST  be
configured and installed like that.


-- 
Lee Sau Dan                     李守敦(Big5)                    ~{@nJX6X~}(HZ) 

E-mail: danlee@informatik.uni-freiburg.de
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee