Re: Rant - Elisp terminology is deceptive

[Kelly Dean <kelly@prtime.org>]

Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> Buffer-local values are global values in the usual
> sense that they are instance-wide and can be accessed in local context
> if not shadowed by let-bindings and the like.

Function parameters (or a closure's parameters and environment variables) are global variables in the sense that they're ‟instance-wide” (within the entire function or closure) and can be accessed in local context if not shadowed by let-bindings.

But «within an entire function or closure» isn't really instance-wide? Well neither is «within an entire buffer».

The global environment is the outermost one. A buffer's environment is not. There's only one global environment. There can be multiple buffers and multiple closures, each with its own environment. ‟Buffer-local” is a perfectly good term for buffer-locals. Calling them ‟global” would be misleading, and it's good that Emacs doesn't do that.

‟Global” is the right term for globals.