Newsgroups: comp.lang.dylan
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Subject: Re: Name spaces and Modules (Was: Re: Two Dylan Questions)
References: <rloD1tKCG.7D6@netcom.com> <CARROLL.95Jan4120858@quadriga.cis.udel.edu> <DAVIS.95Jan13110320@passy.ilog.fr>
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Date: Sun, 15 Jan 1995 14:08:59 +0000
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In article <DAVIS.95Jan13110320@passy.ilog.fr>
           davis@ilog.fr "Harley Davis" writes:

> One common development environment feature that we on Unix all know
> and love is the M-. command in Emacs, which brings you to the
> definition of the name on which the cursor is standing.  In VisualC++,
> you have a similar command: selecting a function name in your code and
> hitting F1 will bring up the documentation of that function.  I use
> both of these features all the time to help me understand code.

You seem to be assuming that if Emacs can't support Dylan, then it
will fail. Since I've never used Emacs, I'm not sure why this is so
important. It may well be useful, but that's not the same thing as
being vital to the success of a language, or language feature.

Could you please explain whatever it is that I'm missing, please?
I realise that Emacs is very popular, but so I've managed to get
by without it. Could you also please explain further in what way
Emacs would be unable to interface to the Dylan system that it is
editing code for?

I can't help feeling that there are solutions to these problems,
but I might accept that there aren't, if someone could give me a
good enough explanation for their reasons for believe, so that
a complete beginner with system like this could understand why
this is a problem. I'm not necessarily a complete beginner, but
I'm far from being an expert, either. All I know really know is
that people keep suprising me with things that they can make
software do. Things that some programmers say are impossible,
but others say _are_ possible.

That gives me some doubts about any claim programmers make - how
do I know who is right, or that I've heard every programmer with
an opinion or experience with that kind of problem? I hope you
or someone else can settle my doubts about this matter.

Thanks.
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