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Re: Placement of list within an interactive clause


From: Jean Louis
Subject: Re: Placement of list within an interactive clause
Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2022 00:31:10 +0300
User-agent: Mutt/+ () (2022-06-11)

* carlmarcos@tutanota.com <carlmarcos@tutanota.com> [2022-07-16 00:23]:
> Yes, I realise that.  I see that (interactive) is misleading. 
> Although "read-from-minibuffer" cannot be called from M-x, it still
> asks for input through the minibuffer.  Notwithstanding   that
> normal programming language code does not customarily lead to user
> input during run-time, particularly when automation is pursued.

Emacs Lisp is what it is. Text editor IS interactive as by the context
of English language. Declaration "(interactive)" is not misleading as
it has pretty good description what it is. If you however, do not
understand any word in that description, let us know.

The misnderstanding comes when you try mixing various context, you
know the context of "interactive" in English and then you assume it is
same contect in Emacs Lisp, while it is not.

While definition for declaration "(interactive)" may be found in
Emacs, this definition below is found in Wordnet dictionary:

* Overview of adj interactive

The adj interactive has 2 senses (no senses from tagged texts)
1. synergistic, interactive -- (used especially of drugs or muscles that work 
together so the total effect is greater than the sum of the two (or more))
2. interactional, interactive -- (capable of acting on or influencing each 
other)

And it is obvious that definition number 2 fits into what we are
speaking about, not the number 1, as Emacs functions are not related
to muscles or drugs.

If I think of who or what is "each other", maybe those are functions,
maybe screen, thus majority of functions could be said to be
interactive by English language context.

If function changes color of Emacs editor, it is interactive. If it
influences other function it is interactive. Do we need to consider
"interactive" only if it influences human? It influences 2 parties or
things, it is not clear quite, it is "each other". If function
influences computer time, it is interactive.

Is the definition really that what we are talking about?

-- 
Jean

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