bug#21072: 24.5; inconsistent behaviour of `C-M-h (mark-defun)' in Emacs Lisp

[Marcin Borkowski <mbork@mbork.pl>]

On 2016-05-01, at 19:17, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:

>> From: Marcin Borkowski <mbork@amu.edu.pl>
>> Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2016 13:11:01 +0200
>> Cc: 21072@debbugs.gnu.org
>> 
>> On 2015-07-16, at 08:12, Raffaele Ricciardi <rfflrccrd@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> > Dear Emacs maintainers,
>> >
>> > the documentation for `mark-defun' says:
>> >
>> >     The defun marked is the one that contains point or follows point.
>> >
>> > However, Emacs may mark the preceding defun instead, and it may
>> > mark an unrelated preceding comment along with the defun.
>> 
>> Confirmed on GNU Emacs 25.1.50.8 (commit 912e915).
>
> FWIW, I don't see why the behavior flagged "incorrect" is deemed
> incorrect.  It looks correct to me.  In all of those examples point is
> between 2 functions, so what exactly is "correct" is open to
> discussion.
>
> Am I missing something?

Yes.  Here's a fragment from `mark-defun''s docstring:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
Put mark at end of this defun, point at beginning.
The defun marked is the one that contains point or follows point.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

And from the Emacs manual:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
If you use the command while point is between defuns, it uses the
following defun.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

So IMHO it's not "open to discussion" - the behavior is different than
described in both the docstring (a bit implicitly) or in the manual
(explicitly).

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
Adam Mickiewicz University