Re: misnomers

[Reini U. <rei...@gm...>]

> On Jun 2, 2017, at 7:32 PM, Bruno Haible <br...@cl...> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> There are a couple of wrong terms in the source code:
> 
> * NESTED_IBLOCK/ITAGBODY_frame_info, nest_fun, nest_env:
>  I'll rename "nested" to "captured".
>  Because what it does is to move values from the stack
>  (where they will disappear when the stack frame is unwound)
>  to other locations (where they cannot disappear, other
>  than being GCed).
> 
> * How to call the result of capturing a stack frame?
>  It's a simple-vector consisting of binding cells.
>  The previous term "closure" is wrong (see [1]).
>  I'm hesitating between
>    - "a capture" - because of the verb "capture" above,
>      but still a misnomer [2],
>    - "a prison" - because it's a container for *cell*s,
>      and contains *capture*d values.
> 
> Opinions? Objections?

nest_fun was originally Schachtelung (before 2001), then translated to nested.
nested means the stacked structure of the captures. Maybe stacked 
is better then as nested.
capture is mostly something else.

even the old german description was not good.
e.g.
nest_fun(env)
# UP: "nestet" ein FUN-Environment, d.h. schreibt alle aktiven Bindungen
# aus dem Stack in neu allozierte Vektoren.
=> /* UP: "nests" a FUN-Environment, i.e. writes all active bindings
 from the Stack into freshly allocated vectors.

maybe this is better: “adds a new stack frame of the fun-environment, 
 i.e. writes all active bindings from the stack into freshly allocated vectors."


> 
> Bruno
> 
> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_(computer_programming)
> [2] http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=capture&sub=Search+WordNet&o2=&o0=1&o8=1&o1=1&o7=&o5=&o9=&o6=&o3=&o4=&h=

Reini Urban
ru...@cp...