[racket-dev] guidelines on error messages -- please send feedback

Kathi is understating it.  There are TWO notions of "variable".  In
algebra, in f(x) = x^2, x is called a "variable" because it varies
across invocations of f -- which is different from the CS notion of
"varies within a single invocation".  So it's not even illegitimate
given the other meaning of "variable".

(As you know, I make a royal fuss about this in 173.  So it took me a
while to reconcile to this change.  But I think it's absolutely
right.)

On Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 3:52 PM, Kathi Fisler <kfisler at cs.wpi.edu> wrote:
> The choice of "variable" is motivated by students and the desire to align
> with terms they know from high school math.   The distinction between
> variable and identifier is too subtle for many students.
>
> Kathi
>
> On Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 3:13 PM, Jay McCarthy <jay.mccarthy at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> "Use ‘argument’ for actual arguments and ‘variable’ for formal
>> arguments and in the body of the definition."
>>
>> I prefer argument and parameter name, because until ASL, they don't
>> vary. But it seems you prefer just variable, because you don't want
>> two terms for the things made by 'define' and the things made by
>> 'lambda'? This is very bikesheddy, but I dislike your choice.
>>
>> Jay
>>
>> 2011/6/3 Shriram Krishnamurthi <sk at cs.brown.edu>:
>> > Guillaume, Kathi and I have created a set of guidelines for writing
>> > error messages for *SL.  For consistency, these guidelines need to be
>> > used also by authors of libraries including Teachpacks, etc.  These
>> > guidelines are currently being applied to all the error messages in
>> > *SL in the core distribution.
>> >
>> > Please review these guidelines and let us know if anything is
>> > unclear.  We'd like to hear back from you within a week, by
>> >
>> > Fri, June 10
>> >
>> > We have had to compromise on the description a little to make
>> > everything fit into a small number of pages, which we did because we
>> > really do hope people will print these out and put them on the wall or
>> > next to their monitor to refer to while writing code.  Therefore,
>> > lengthy descriptions are out.
>> >
>> > In particular, rationale is also out.  If you are curious about the
>> > rationales for any of these things, please do ask.
>> >
>> > After this is settled next week, we will send this to users@ and also
>> > to edu@ to tell instructors to follow these terms.
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> > Shriram
>> >
>> > _________________________________________________
>> >  For list-related administrative tasks:
>> >  http://lists.racket-lang.org/listinfo/dev
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Jay McCarthy <jay at cs.byu.edu>
>> Assistant Professor / Brigham Young University
>> http://faculty.cs.byu.edu/~jay
>>
>> "The glory of God is Intelligence" - D&C 93
>>
>
>