Re: Documentation for car and cdr

[Thien-Thi Nguyen]

Alan Mackenzie <address@hidden> writes:

> I think that "car returns the car" and "cdr returns the cdr" have
> negative value - they irritate without enlightening.

the irritation is not inherent in the text of a docstring, and neither
is the process of enlightenment (if any).

> Again, I disagree.  A fledgling Elisp hacker is likely to spend time
> reading through existing code.  She's likely to expect C-h f to tell her
> what the mysterious functions do.

how the fledgling hacker handles unfulfilled expectations is probably a
nice thing for the fledgling hacker to hack, rather than the docstring.

> The OP and I want clarity.  Most doc strings are rigorous, clear and
> helpful at the same time.  Why can't those for car and cdr also be so?
 
it can't be so when someone doesn't let it be so.

thi