GNU bug report logs - #40671
[DOC] modify literal objects

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Package: emacs;

Reported by: Kevin Vigouroux <ke.vigouroux <at> laposte.net>

Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2020 20:40:02 UTC

Severity: normal

Tags: patch

Done: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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Message #147 received at 40671 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Richard Stallman <rms <at> gnu.org>
To: Mattias Engdegård <mattiase <at> acm.org>
Cc: michael_heerdegen <at> web.de, ke.vigouroux <at> laposte.net, eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu,
 40671 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#40671: [DOC] modify literal objects
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2020 23:38:08 -0400

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > That is an interesting point. What is the difference between
  > CANNOT and SHOULD NOT, operationally? To the user, nothing; there
  > is no gain from disobeying our advice.

It makes a big practical difference to programmers.

CANNOT means "If you try to chsnge it, it won't change",
and probably also "That will trigger a diagnostic."

SHOULOD NOT means "if you try to chsnge it, it will give you no
diagnostic and the value will seem to have changed, but afterward
bizarre things may happen."

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)
This bug report was last modified 5 years and 3 days ago.

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