On Mon, 13 Aug 2018, Al Viro wrote:

On Mon, Aug 13, 2018 at 09:48:53AM -0700, Andy Lutomirski wrote:

quoted

Are there cases I'm missing?  It sounds like the API could be improved
to fully model the last case, and everything will work nicely.

	You know, that's starting to remind of this little gem of Borges:
http://www.alamut.com/subj/artiface/language/johnWilkins.html
Especially the delightful (fake) quote contained in there:
[...] it is written that the animals are divided into:
	(a) belonging to the emperor,
	(b) embalmed,
	(c) tame,
	(d) sucking pigs,
	(e) sirens,
	(f) fabulous,
	(g) stray dogs,
	(h) included in the present classification,
	(i) frenzied,
	(j) innumerable,
	(k) drawn with a very fine camelhair brush,
	(l) et cetera,
	(m) having just broken the water pitcher,
	(n) that from a long way off look like flies.

Coincidentally, this was also the model for Linux capabilities.


-- 
James Morris
[off-list ref]