+> Trying to make a formal definition of this: (Note, I'm using the term sets rather than lists, but they're roughly equivalent)
+>
+> * Let the *matching set* for a pagespec be the set of pages that the pagespec matches.
+> * Let a *complete influence set* for a pagespec be the set of all pages whose alteration might change the matching set of that pagespec.
+> * Let the *direct influence set* be the intersection of the matching set and the complete influence set.
+> * Let the *indirect influence set* be the compliment of the direct influence set with respect to the complete influence set.
+>
+> Is that a fair definition? I don't think it quite matches your examples below unfortunately.
+> I was unsure if I should insert the word 'existing' in there in a few places. As it stands, these definitions could include sets of pages that don't exist, e.g. "*".
+> The one I'm least sure of is the definition of the direct influence set. It feels like you want something
+> like "the traditional set of things we thought about that could cause a pagespec to change", but that definition
+> is not very formal and I suspect will lead to problems. Something like "The set of pages matched by the globs in the pagespec" might be closer?
+> --[[Will]]
+