>===== Original Message From Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi@iki.fi> ===== >On Sat, Dec 01, 2001 at 01:29:56PM -0500, Michael G Schwern wrote: >> On Sat, Dec 01, 2001 at 08:04:16AM -0500, Benjamin J. Tilly wrote: >> > This adds shortmess/longmess to the summary, and gives a fuller >> > description of exactly how shortmess works. >> >> <whine>can't we agree on a better name?</whine> > >New names won't help old code. What old code? Previously shortmess/longmess were undocumented internal functions, and calling them was likely to be rather confusing since they had the built-in assumption that the user-level module was exactly 2 calls away on the callstack. As the old saying goes, "You can play with your privates, and you can play with your friends. But you shouldn't play with your friends privates." I have little sympathy for anyone whose code breaks because these functions are renamed. Even so, though, Schwern is perfectly right that this is the first time they have been documented and made publically available. We have no reason, therefore, not to give them whatever public name we want. To get the ball rolling, I suggest short_complaint and verbose_complaint. Cheers, BenThread Previous | Thread Next