From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Eric Abrahamsen Subject: Re: Elisp programming style Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2011 09:13:55 +0700 Message-ID: <87sjmc1r4s.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> References: <86obx2gvmd.fsf@googlemail.com> <8762j94dz0.fsf@gmail.com> <86obx1qkcc.fsf@googlemail.com> <18647.1319812286@alphaville.dokosmarshall.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:50703) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RJyR2-0006Ts-Ub for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 28 Oct 2011 22:14:14 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RJyR1-0008Fh-Ry for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 28 Oct 2011 22:14:12 -0400 Received: from lo.gmane.org ([80.91.229.12]:49746) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1RJyR1-0008FZ-Ms for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 28 Oct 2011 22:14:11 -0400 Received: from list by lo.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1RJyR0-0002Hc-GQ for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sat, 29 Oct 2011 04:14:10 +0200 Received: from 180.183.190.135 ([180.183.190.135]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 29 Oct 2011 04:14:10 +0200 Received: from eric by 180.183.190.135 with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Sat, 29 Oct 2011 04:14:10 +0200 List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org [...] >> Would that be considered bad style from the original author, or is that >> up to personal choice and not considered a problem? >> > > Not a problem - you can't predict the future. You do the best you can > with your current knowledge. You can always refactor in the future: > that's one reason that having the source code around is important. When > you refactor, you may be cursing the original author for the "bad" > decicions, but c'est la vie: at least, you have chosen a system where > *you* can do that and not depend on a third party: they might not even > be alive, let alone willing to do what you want. I think this is probably the key. As a non-professional programmer who has gone on safari through the org-mode code (though this obviously applies to a lot of elisp packages), I think incremental growth is responsible for a lot of oddities. Refactoring is possible in theory, but for fast-growing packages it never becomes a priority, and my guess is by this point there are parts of org where even Carsten would tread very lightly. It's not a disaster, but it does lead to regression bugs, which I think we're seeing. Entropy is contravened, however: witness the push towards an org test suite, and the production of a generic exporter in org… Slightly OT, sorry, Eric -- GNU Emacs 24.0.90.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.24.4) of 2011-10-06 on pellet Org-mode version 7.7 (release_7.7.466.ga5cb)