Re: Documentation for car and cdr

[Thien-Thi Nguyen]

Alan Mackenzie <address@hidden> writes:

> Because that would force the poor hacker to go and look
> somewhere else.  Having to go and look somewhere else is always
> a pain in the posterior, particularly when a one-liner
> explanation is all that is sought.

if a "hacker" feels "forced" to search widely due to not
understanding something, then that is a poor hacker indeed!

a righteous hacker (fledgling or otherwise) would happily snort
the challenging docstring like the gateway drug it is, disappear
for a few days imbibing more in-depth documentation, and reappear
later wielding `M-x report-emacs-bug' on those bits, instead (if
need be).

we can drop (or ignore) the hacker mystique if we want, but it's
easier to tell ordinary programmers: try to emulate the hackers.
luckily in this case, that is the best advice to give.  climb the
trunk feet skyward; dance on the leaves but hold on to the root.

thi