Re: [ELPA] New package: transient

[Richard Stallman]

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  > > Is the reason you expect the names to follow that pattern
  > > that you are coming from a language that uses abstract object tyoes
  > > where each type defines methods to operate on it?  Do you wish you
  > > could ask, "Show me the operations defined on type 'regexp'"?

  > Yes, and also because in almost every other languages there are namespaces.
  > Including other lisps (Scheme, Clojure). Even in Emacs Lisp the namespace
  > concept is used, look at the all the `string-*` functions.

No, they are not namespaces.  What Emacs has is naming conventions.
They are flexible, not rigid.  They are suggestions, not rules.

We will not change Emacs to make them rigid rules, because we can't
stand for such regimentation.  But it isn't necessary.  We can provide
documentation facilities that do exactly what you want -- that list functions
_as if_ we had renamed functions to fit those rules.  You would then
be able to customize them, extend them, and modify them.

  >   We could make an alias
  > > ("alist" "assoc"), which would add "assoc" to the list
  > > of completions of "alist".
  > >
  > > These aliases would avoid the downsides completely.  Would they help you?

  > Maybe, I see that as being a bit dangerous and unexpected for a lot of
  > users tho. One expects plain text search in C-h f.

The text for that completion item could look like this

   alist-association (assoc)

Then the completion itself could be purely textual,
but if you select that item, what you would get in the minibuffer
would be 'assoc'.

It can work whichever way you like, and the way you prefer
could be installed as an option for users to choose.

Would that do what you need?



-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)