unofficial mirror of bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org 
 help / color / mirror / code / Atom feed
From: Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
Cc: 14843@debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#14843: 24.3.50; `line-move', `line-move-visual' need doc strings
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 13:52:23 -0700 (PDT)	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <83e00f63-4458-4901-8816-4875f599d9cc@default> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <<83r4f46hmm.fsf@gnu.org>>

> > > > These functions, especially `line-move', are used all over the place.
> > > > They need doc strings, with complete descriptions of their parameters.
> > >
> > > They are internal functions.  Under what circumstances did you need to
> > > use them directly?  Why wasn't next/previous-line enough?
> >
> > Read what I wrote: they "are used all over the place".  In the Emacs code
> > alone, not to mention in 3rd-party code.  They are not "internal" to
> > simple.el.  They are not internal to anything.  Reality.
> 
> That an internal function is used all over the Emacs code is a small
> wonder.  It just means someone was smart enough to capture a frequent
> need of many features.

And each person who wrote such Emacs code needed to figure out for herself
what the parameters mean (or not bother).

Perhaps it is also a small wonder that NONE of the uses of `line-move',
including those in simple.el itself, make ANY USE of the additional
parameters introduced in Emacs 22 (and not used even in 22).

An indication, perhaps, that even Emacs Dev could use a little Emacs
self-documenting.  Doc strings are for everyone.

Arguing not to create clear doc strings for "internal" functions made little
sense in the 1960s.  It makes no sense at all now.

In bygone days, Emacs code had comments instead of doc strings for some
functions (sometimes systematically, for a given library).  Most of those
comments were changed to doc strings once the Dark Ages were over.

Look at the large comments preceding these two function defuns.  Yet even
those elaborate comments do not describe the parameters.  Emacs can do
better.  Much better.







       reply	other threads:[~2013-07-11 20:52 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 10+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
     [not found] <<43758336-46c0-42cf-a16d-6412c5e003d8@default>
     [not found] ` <<83r4f46hmm.fsf@gnu.org>
2013-07-11 20:52   ` Drew Adams [this message]
2013-07-12  6:54     ` bug#14843: 24.3.50; `line-move', `line-move-visual' need doc strings Eli Zaretskii
     [not found] <<83e00f63-4458-4901-8816-4875f599d9cc@default>
     [not found] ` <<83li5c5kvp.fsf@gnu.org>
2013-07-12  8:26   ` Drew Adams
2013-07-12  9:19     ` Eli Zaretskii
     [not found] <<e1139e17-abfc-4da6-a255-23f8e781bbfa@default>
     [not found] ` <<83sizl54mu.fsf@gnu.org>
2013-07-11 18:50   ` Drew Adams
2013-07-11 19:06     ` Eli Zaretskii
2013-07-11 15:40 Drew Adams
2013-07-11 18:32 ` Eli Zaretskii
2013-07-11 23:04 ` Stefan Monnier
2014-02-08  6:28   ` Lars Ingebrigtsen

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

  List information: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=83e00f63-4458-4901-8816-4875f599d9cc@default \
    --to=drew.adams@oracle.com \
    --cc=14843@debbugs.gnu.org \
    --cc=eliz@gnu.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
Code repositories for project(s) associated with this public inbox

	https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git

This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for read-only IMAP folder(s) and NNTP newsgroup(s).