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RE: [ELPA] New package: transient


From: Drew Adams
Subject: RE: [ELPA] New package: transient
Date: Sat, 2 May 2020 10:33:12 -0700 (PDT)

> My original use case is: I want to copy an association list,
> I know the function will probably have "copy" in its name
> and "alist",

Maybe, maybe not.  Yep, there's a function named
`copy-alist'.  A win.

But in general the function you want might have
"copy" and something more general than "alist"
in its name.

What's an alist?  It's a list.  What's a (true)
list?  It's a sequence.

`copy-sequence' (aka `copy-seq') also copies an
alist.

So yeah, it's sometimes about things, not just
their names.

If `copy-alist' didn't exist, then no reasonable
naming scheme would have gotten you there.
You'd have to have some understanding that an
alist is a list is a sequence.  And _then_, sure,
good naming can help.

And in this case, just `C-h f copy TAB' gives you
a list of 41 function names, and it's pretty easy
to see find `copy-alist', `copy-sequence', and
`copy-seq'.

(If it weren't easy, it would at least be easy to
match others and remove those other matches,
assuming you have a way to do that.)



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