unofficial mirror of bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org 
 help / color / mirror / code / Atom feed
From: Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>
To: 26301@debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#26301: 24.5; `define-derived-mode': different signatures for doc string & manual
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2017 08:03:43 -0700 (PDT)	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <8cad00f7-f86e-4d12-ad36-05214708aff1@default> (raw)

The signature is ultimately the same but it is documented differently.
It would be better to use the same signature spec for both, unless
there is a good reason not to.

In the manual it is declared as being:

 define-derived-mode variant parent name docstring keyword-args… body…

In the doc string it is declared as being:

 (define-derived-mode CHILD PARENT NAME &optional DOCSTRING &rest BODY)

No KEYWORD-ARGS.  They are included in BODY, so the specifications of
BODY differ between the two.

The doc string says: "BODY can start with a bunch of keyword arguments."
What's a "bunch" here?  Any number?  Not very clear.

For both doc string and manual: Can any of the keyword args be repeated?
Can you, for example, use :group more than once, to specify belonging to
multiple groups?  If not, and if a keyword arg is present more than once,
which one gets used?  Or is an error raised?  The treatment of keyword
args is not well specified.

In the doc string, this expression is not good: "On a more complicated
level".  Unclear, misleading, unhelpful.

(On the plus sign, this doc string xrefs the node in the manual.)

The manual also says this:

"Only the (still experimental and unadvertised) command ‘customize-mode’
currently uses this [the customization group]."

The "still experimental and unadvertised" part is inappropriate, IMHO.
And by including it we've just advertised it!  It is unclear what this
statement is trying to convey to users, and why.


In GNU Emacs 24.5.1 (i686-pc-mingw32)
 of 2015-04-11 on LEG570
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 6.1.7601
Configured using:
 `configure --prefix=3D/c/usr --host=3Di686-pc-mingw32'





             reply	other threads:[~2017-03-29 15:03 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 12+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2017-03-29 15:03 Drew Adams [this message]
2019-07-26 11:04 ` bug#26301: 24.5; `define-derived-mode': different signatures for doc string & manual Lars Ingebrigtsen
2019-07-26 14:50   ` Drew Adams
2019-07-26 14:54   ` Noam Postavsky
2019-07-26 15:08     ` Lars Ingebrigtsen
2019-07-26 15:51       ` Drew Adams
2019-07-26 15:38     ` Drew Adams
2019-07-27 10:03     ` Lars Ingebrigtsen
2019-07-27 16:54       ` Drew Adams
2019-07-27 22:19         ` Michael Heerdegen
2019-07-28  0:01           ` Drew Adams
2019-07-28  0:14             ` Michael Heerdegen

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=8cad00f7-f86e-4d12-ad36-05214708aff1@default \
    --to=drew.adams@oracle.com \
    --cc=26301@debbugs.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).