Re: [Chicken-users] [wish list] chicken-install: show available eggs, upgrade all installed eggs?

[Peter Bex]

On Thu, May 05, 2011 at 06:06:16AM -0400, Felix wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> > It would be good to be able to show available eggs when installing an egg, 
> > such
> > that user can grep and find wanted eggs quickly without having to browse at
> > http://wiki.call-cc.org/chicken-projects/egg- index-4.html.  Simply a text 
> > dump
> > of that html page would help much.
> 
> That is possible, but would require a regularly updated "master" document 
> somewhere
> on our server.

Like "egg-locations" in the new distributed system? ;)
http://bugs.call-cc.org/browser/release/4/egg-locations

> > P.S. The mixture of tabs and space in the source codes really cause a 
> > headache
> > for the indention..
> 
> What editor are you using?

I agree that TabsAreEvil in Scheme/Lisp code.  Even with emacs, it's
highly dependent on your tab width.

Suppose I indented the following piece of code using tabs with a tab
setting of 4:

(define (foo)
  (if (whatever)
      (print "whatever")
      (print "not whatever")))

and you view it with a tab setting of 8, you'd get:
(define (foo)
  (if (whatever)
          (print "whatever")
          (print "not whatever")))

When indenting with tab setting 8 and viewing with tab setting 4, you
get the opposite thing (things not indented far enough).

With Lisp/Scheme code, the only sensible indentation style really is
spaces.  With braces-like languages like C it makes sense to use tabs
if used consistently, but even there it's a good source of flamewars.

Because if you consistently indent and have set tabs to 8, it looks like
this on the screen:

int main(void) {
        if (whatever) {
                printf("blah\n");
        }
}

When someone with tabs set to 4 views this code, he or she will see
the following:

int main(void) {
    if (whatever) {
        printf("blah\n");
    }
}

See also http://emacswiki.org/TabsAreEvil

Cheers,
Peter
-- 
http://sjamaan.ath.cx
--
"The process of preparing programs for a digital computer
 is especially attractive, not only because it can be economically
 and scientifically rewarding, but also because it can be an aesthetic
 experience much like composing poetry or music."
                                                        -- Donald Knuth