From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Alan Mackenzie Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.bugs Subject: bug#70702: Useless error message from the reader: Error: invalid-read-syntax ("#") Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 19:29:54 +0000 Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="15023"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" To: 70702@debbugs.gnu.org Original-X-From: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Wed May 01 21:31:10 2024 Return-path: Envelope-to: geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1s2Ffa-0003lh-0d for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org; Wed, 01 May 2024 21:31:10 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1] helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1s2FfM-0001NV-Sr; Wed, 01 May 2024 15:30:57 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1s2Ff7-0001Lj-1F for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 01 May 2024 15:30:41 -0400 Original-Received: from debbugs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:5::43]) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_128_GCM_SHA256:128) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1s2Ff6-0005fH-P6 for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 01 May 2024 15:30:40 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-debbugs by debbugs.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1s2FfS-0005eq-2U for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 01 May 2024 15:31:02 -0400 X-Loop: help-debbugs@gnu.org Resent-From: Alan Mackenzie Original-Sender: "Debbugs-submit" Resent-CC: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Resent-Date: Wed, 01 May 2024 19:31:01 +0000 Resent-Message-ID: Resent-Sender: help-debbugs@gnu.org X-GNU-PR-Message: report 70702 X-GNU-PR-Package: emacs X-Debbugs-Original-To: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-Received: via spool by submit@debbugs.gnu.org id=B.171459184521740 (code B ref -1); Wed, 01 May 2024 19:31:01 +0000 Original-Received: (at submit) by debbugs.gnu.org; 1 May 2024 19:30:45 +0000 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:39022 helo=debbugs.gnu.org) by debbugs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1s2FfB-0005ea-9h for submit@debbugs.gnu.org; Wed, 01 May 2024 15:30:45 -0400 Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([2001:470:142::17]:46808) by debbugs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1s2Ff9-0005eU-Jr for submit@debbugs.gnu.org; Wed, 01 May 2024 15:30:44 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1s2Feg-0001Cg-Br for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 01 May 2024 15:30:16 -0400 Original-Received: from mail.muc.de ([193.149.48.3]) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1s2Fed-0005PV-Io for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 01 May 2024 15:30:14 -0400 Original-Received: (qmail 90376 invoked by uid 3782); 1 May 2024 21:29:54 +0200 Original-Received: from muc.de (p4fe15130.dip0.t-ipconnect.de [79.225.81.48]) (using STARTTLS) by colin.muc.de (tmda-ofmipd) with ESMTP; Wed, 01 May 2024 21:29:54 +0200 Original-Received: (qmail 22904 invoked by uid 1000); 1 May 2024 19:29:54 -0000 Content-Disposition: inline X-Submission-Agent: TMDA/1.3.x (Ph3nix) X-Primary-Address: acm@muc.de Received-SPF: pass client-ip=193.149.48.3; envelope-from=acm@muc.de; helo=mail.muc.de X-Spam_score_int: -18 X-Spam_score: -1.9 X-Spam_bar: - X-Spam_report: (-1.9 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, SPF_HELO_PASS=-0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-BeenThere: debbugs-submit@debbugs.gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18 Precedence: list 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-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.bugs:284259 Archived-At: Hello, Emacs. Recently, in my development version, I got the "error message": Error: invalid-read-syntax ("#") while attempting to build Emacs. This is an utterly useless error message: (i) "#" is valid syntax in a .el or .elc file. Only a subsequent character causes the invalidity. The precise character sequence is not disclosed. (ii) The source of the invalid character sequence, a file or buffer or string is kept secret. (iii) The offset of the erring position in the file/buffer/string is not disclosed. Neither is a line number or column number. (iv) No context is given (e.g. the 32 characters before and after the "#"). This unhelpful message is a bug: a correct message would give at least some of the information listed above. The appearance, which surely must be false, is that the person implementing the error messages was not attempting to help those affected by them. Come on, Emacs - we can do better than this. -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).