bug#53261: 26.3; Doc of `load-history' should say what the alist order is.

bug#53261: 26.3; Doc of `load-history' should say what the alist order is.

[Drew Adams]

The doc of `load-history' describes the alist entries in detail.  But it
should also say that the list entries are in reverse chronological order
of loading, i.e., earliest loaded libraries at the end, most recently
loaded entries at the beginning.

This may be obvious if you assume the simplest construction of the
alist.  It's nevertheless important information to mention in the doc.

In GNU Emacs 26.3 (build 1, x86_64-w64-mingw32)
 of 2019-08-29
Repository revision: 96dd0196c28bc36779584e47fffcca433c9309cd
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 10.0.19043
Configured using:
 `configure --without-dbus --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32
 --without-compress-install 'CFLAGS=-O2 -static -g3''

bug#53261: 26.3; Doc of `load-history' should say what the alist order is.

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

> The doc of `load-history' describes the alist entries in detail.  But it
> should also say that the list entries are in reverse chronological order
> of loading, i.e., earliest loaded libraries at the end, most recently
> loaded entries at the beginning.

I'm not sure whether that's something that we guarantee, or want to
guarantee?  Anybody have any opinions here?

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#53261: [External] : Re: bug#53261: 26.3; Doc of `load-history' should say what the alist order is.

[Drew Adams]

> > The doc of `load-history' describes the alist entries in detail.  But it
> > should also say that the list entries are in reverse chronological order
> > of loading, i.e., earliest loaded libraries at the end, most recently
> > loaded entries at the beginning.
> 
> I'm not sure whether that's something that we guarantee, or want to
> guarantee?  Anybody have any opinions here?

1. I believe it's been in that order since Day One.
2. How could it be otherwise?  (Dunno.)
3. Users should have some understanding of the order,
   to make sense of `load-history'.  Examining this
   history is one way of figuring out something that
   didn't go as expected (e.g. the wrong definition
   of something shadowing another).

It's called `load-history'.  Users will expect it
to be similar to other `*-history' lists, unless
its doc says something different.  But it helps
to directly say what its order is.

It's true that the doc strings of the individual
_minibuffer_ history vars don't say that they are
"most recent first".  But at least the Elisp
manual (node `Minibuffer History') says it's true
of all minibuffer history vars.

The Emacs manual (node `Shell Ring') says that
shell histories are like minibuffer histories.
And node `Repetition' says that command history
is also "most recent first". 

bug#53261: 26.3; Doc of `load-history' should say what the alist order is.

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:
>
>> The doc of `load-history' describes the alist entries in detail.  But it
>> should also say that the list entries are in reverse chronological order
>> of loading, i.e., earliest loaded libraries at the end, most recently
>> loaded entries at the beginning.
>
> I'm not sure whether that's something that we guarantee, or want to
> guarantee?  Anybody have any opinions here?

Nobody had an opinion in a month, and I don't think we want to guarantee
this, so I'm closing this bug report.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#53261: [External] : Re: bug#53261: 26.3; Doc of `load-history' should say what the alist order is.

[Drew Adams]

> Nobody had an opinion in a month, and I don't think we want to guarantee
> this, so I'm closing this bug report.

Phony reason.  There's no need for any such
guarantee, just to document this.  Emacs
doesn't guarantee 99% of what is documented
(if it even guarantees anything).

It's about helping users understand this
history list.  Users use it for multiple
purposes, most of which depend on knowing
what the order is.

This isn't - shouldn't be - any different
from the other history lists I cited.

bug#53261: [External] : Re: bug#53261: 26.3; Doc of `load-history' should say what the alist order is.

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > Phony reason.

"Phony" implies deception, and that makes it an insulting word.

If you want to argue that a cited reason is not valid, or is not
strong enough to carry the decision, please say that without accusing
anyone of bad faith.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)