Re: Lisp help messages in echo area

[Emanuel Berg]

John Ankarström wrote:

> defun: (NAME ARGLIST &optional DOCSTRING DECL
> &rest BODY)

Knowing the interfaces of/to each component
(e.g., a function) is the key to all
programming and actually all *activity*.
Having immediate access to it is the one
advantage that will rule supreme.

Many people think programming makes you
practically inept - just staring at unworldly
code all night long...?! This might hold true
if you *only* do programming - such
one-dimensionalness is of course harmful
whatever field. But do programming *and*
something else as well - trust me, this soon
makes you better at doing "something else" than
the people who do that all day every day! (Or
at least just as good with much less effort.)

For example, go to your tool box and pick up
a combination spanner/wrench and a
combination plier. "Examine" those tools, in
the Shadowgate/Déjà Vu lingo, and identify
their properties and interfaces as would
a programmer.

Then, have the very pleasant realization that
having mastered programming - that is, the
craft, not every detail which would be
impossible - having mastered programming,
everything else is child's play :)

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573