From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Luc Teirlinck Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: defvaralias Date: Fri, 6 May 2005 17:39:48 -0500 (CDT) Message-ID: <200505062239.j46Mdm020681@raven.dms.auburn.edu> References: <200505060142.j461gYF08458@raven.dms.auburn.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1115419187 3702 80.91.229.2 (6 May 2005 22:39:47 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 6 May 2005 22:39:47 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat May 07 00:39:43 2005 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DUBTk-0007Qw-9D for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 07 May 2005 00:39:29 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DUBYB-0003ZS-5z for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 06 May 2005 18:44:03 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DUBXb-0003MW-Lm for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 06 May 2005 18:43:33 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DUBXU-0003IW-1d for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 06 May 2005 18:43:20 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DUBXT-0003IS-TU for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 06 May 2005 18:43:20 -0400 Original-Received: from [131.204.53.104] (helo=manatee.dms.auburn.edu) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1DUBZl-00040e-Q2; Fri, 06 May 2005 18:45:41 -0400 Original-Received: from raven.dms.auburn.edu (raven.dms.auburn.edu [131.204.53.29]) by manatee.dms.auburn.edu (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id j46Me8og000708; Fri, 6 May 2005 17:40:08 -0500 (CDT) Original-Received: (from teirllm@localhost) by raven.dms.auburn.edu (8.11.7p1+Sun/8.11.7) id j46Mdm020681; Fri, 6 May 2005 17:39:48 -0500 (CDT) X-Authentication-Warning: raven.dms.auburn.edu: teirllm set sender to teirllm@dms.auburn.edu using -f Original-To: rms@gnu.org In-reply-to: (message from Richard Stallman on Fri, 06 May 2005 14:51:47 -0400) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:36780 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:36780 Richard Stallman wrote: I think that is cleaner, but it is also an incompatible change. I'd rather warn people we will change this after version 22. But the function is new in 22.1, so if we change this in 23, we have aberrant behavior for just one single release. All current documentation, including the NEWS, describes the behavior as being what the behavior _would_ be after my patch. So the current actual behavior appears to be unintentional. The change only affects docstrings, so can not introduce severe bugs. The change only makes a difference in cases which should not really occur to begin with (at least not in the Emacs source code): a variable defined twice, once with defvar and once with defvaralias. Not making the small code change would require the documentation (docstring, Elisp manual and NEWS) to become more complex. We would have to document the exceptional case and then warn that it will go away in Emacs 23. Sincerely, Luc.