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

I have the same latent feelings as Stephen, but Shriram's argument has
convinced me enough to put them away until I see a problem in
practice.

Jay

2011/6/3 Stephen Bloch <sbloch at adelphi.edu>:
>
> On Jun 3, 2011, at 8:34 PM, Shriram Krishnamurthi wrote:
>
>>> Oh, I'm all in favor of skipping "identifier".   But using the word
>>> "variable" both for global variables (i.e. constants) and for
>>> function parameters strikes me as asking for confusion.
>>
>> Okay.  We have no evidence one way or the other.  It could be
>> something we try to investigate.  Given our observation (for other
>> terms) that fine-grained distinctions actually cause more confusion
>> than help, I am not at all ready to buy your argument.  Moreover, I
>> have also come to distrust arguments from pure reason in this area.
>
> Fair enough.  Data are good.
>
> But it seems to me that the difference (to a novice) between
> (a) something that's given a value once and for all where its name is defined, and
> (b) something that's a place-holder that takes on a different value every time a particular function is called
> is anything BUT a "fine distinction".
>
>
> Stephen Bloch
> sbloch at adelphi.edu
>
>
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-- 
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