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Date:         Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:20:54 +0200
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From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Lars_Hellstr=F6m?= <Lars.Hellstrom@RESIDENSET.NET>
Subject: Re: remarks on expl3.pdf
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Status: R

Manuel Pégourié-Gonnard skrev:
> Hi,
> 
> Here are some remarks from my last reading of expl3.pdf (r1439).
> 
> 1. Concerning the terminology of "functions". Maybe it's worth mentioning at
> some point that the word function is used in opposition to variable, not to
> macro: theses two objects (functions and variables) remain actually macros, and
> TeX a macro language (like make or C preprocessor as opposed to C). Currently, I
> expect only experienced TeX programmers will look into expl3 so they should be
> mistaken, but for the TeX-programming newcomer, the peculiarities of a macro
> language are often so difficult to understand, that IMO expl3 should state
> clearly that it doesn't magically turn TeX into a classical programming
> language, and that the terms function/variable are only a convention, an not to
> be understood in their usual meaning.

Hear, hear!  d-(^_^)-b

> 2. Still terminology: sometimes "execution" is used when the most accurate term
> would be expansion (eg on the top of page 7). Again, I expect an experienced TeX
> programmer to understand what is actually meant, but I think that for the sake
> of less experienced readers, such language approximations should be avoided, or
> the document should include a warning that sometimes "execution" will be used as
> a generic term for execution-or-expansion-or-both.

I'd certainly expect "execution" to mean "this may involve doing things 
in the stomach".

Lars Hellström