From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Alan Mackenzie Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.bugs Subject: bug#25292: Ambiguity in doc string of defvar Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2016 18:18:38 +0000 Message-ID: <20161229181838.GB2531@acm.fritz.box> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1483035618 776 195.159.176.226 (29 Dec 2016 18:20:18 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2016 18:20:18 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.24 (2015-08-30) To: 25292@debbugs.gnu.org Original-X-From: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Dec 29 19:20:13 2016 Return-path: Envelope-to: geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1cMfJA-0007KT-20 for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 29 Dec 2016 19:20:08 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:36829 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cMfJE-0006S7-MP for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; 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Thu, 29 Dec 2016 13:19:06 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cMfI4-0007CM-SN for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 29 Dec 2016 13:19:05 -0500 Original-Received: from ocolin.muc.de ([193.149.48.4]:35438 helo=mail.muc.de) by eggs.gnu.org with smtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1cMfI4-0007CH-IT for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 29 Dec 2016 13:19:00 -0500 Original-Received: (qmail 7716 invoked by uid 3782); 29 Dec 2016 18:18:58 -0000 Original-Received: from acm.muc.de (p548C6C46.dip0.t-ipconnect.de [84.140.108.70]) by colin.muc.de (tmda-ofmipd) with ESMTP; Thu, 29 Dec 2016 19:18:57 +0100 Original-Received: (qmail 3704 invoked by uid 1000); 29 Dec 2016 18:18:38 -0000 Content-Disposition: inline X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA/1.1.12 (Macallan) X-Primary-Address: acm@muc.de X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: FreeBSD 9.x [fuzzy] X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6.x X-BeenThere: debbugs-submit@debbugs.gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18 Precedence: list X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 208.118.235.43 X-BeenThere: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org List-Id: "Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "bug-gnu-emacs" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.bugs:127555 Archived-At: Hello, Emacs. The doc string for defvar includes this bit: The optional argument INITVALUE is evaluated, and used to set SYMBOL, only if SYMBOL's value is void. Supposing SYMBOL's value is bound. Clearly it does not get set to INITVALUE. But in this case is INITVALUE evaluated (and the result discarded) or not? The text leaves this ambiguous. An improvement would be the appropriate one of the following: If SYMBOL's value is void, the optional argument INITVALUE is evaluated and used to set SYMBOL. INITVALUE is evaluated, and if SYMBOL's value is void, it is used to set SYMBOL. -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).