Re: Remove delete-overlay?

["Stuart D. Herring" <herring@lanl.gov>]

> (Note that it is impossible for a Lisp function to make an object
> cease to exist.  As long as there are pointers to it, it will exist.)

Many objects in Emacs can become "dead", and some of those, once "dead",
can never be used again, or only used again under special circumstances. 
For instance, a marker or overlay in no buffer is dead but revivable, and
a killed buffer is dead forever.  Windows and frames can be revived via
restoring configurations, but cannot be purposefully resurrected, and so
lie somewhere in the middle.

The name `delete-overlay' looks more like the name `kill-buffer' than like
the name `set-marker', although it of course most looks like the names
`delete-window' and `delete-frame', which fall in the middle.  This, I
believe, is the source of (some of) the confusion.  I don't suppose that
anything but providing careful documentation can be done about it now, but
it's worth noting in order to better understand misunderstandings.

Davis

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