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From: Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>
To: Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>, emacs-devel@gnu.org
Subject: RE: file-exists-p on empty string
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2019 14:01:10 -0800 (PST)	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <67a382a2-5ad0-4c97-9123-7f1e7c7dae35@default> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <jwvo96xvspd.fsf-monnier+emacs@gnu.org>

> > I gree, but there is not a line about empty strings in doc-string.
> > It is great that this is mentioned in documentation, but anyway
> > behaviour was quite unexpected
> 
> The problem is that docstrings describe the behavior of a specific
> function, so they usually don't mention the more general aspects that
> affect all functions of a given subsystem, such as here the general
> treatment of the empty string when used as a file name.
> 
> Otherwise, every file-name-manipulating function would have to repeat
> this information in its docstring.

Every such function _should_ have this info in
its doc string.  There's no reason not to.

In terms of the _implementation_ this might be
a "general aspect that affects all functions of
a given subsystem".  But in terms of the doc for
a given such function this is not (only) a
general subsystem aspect - it is part of the
individual function's definition & description.

Even if this weren't such a gotcha, the doc for
the function should describe the return value,
including for any particular input cases.

A user might well start with `C-h f', and not
with some reading of the general-subsystem doc
(assuming there is such doc).  Such info is
pretty important to understanding the particular
function.



  reply	other threads:[~2019-02-27 22:01 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 34+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2019-02-27 20:07 file-exists-p on empty string lg.zevlg
2019-02-27 21:18 ` Stefan Monnier
2019-02-27 22:01   ` Drew Adams [this message]
2019-02-28  3:24     ` Stefan Monnier
2019-03-06  9:51   ` Michael Albinus
2019-03-08  6:11     ` Stefan Monnier
2019-03-09  8:48       ` Michael Albinus
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2019-02-27 22:09 lg.zevlg
2019-02-27 22:23 ` Drew Adams
2019-02-27 22:41   ` Evgeny Zajcev
2019-02-27 23:23     ` Drew Adams
2019-02-28  0:08       ` Evgeny Zajcev
2019-02-28  1:16     ` Stefan Monnier
2019-02-27 12:29 Evgeny Zajcev
2019-02-27 14:15 ` Michael Albinus
2019-02-27 15:29   ` Troy Hinckley
2019-02-27 15:43   ` Robert Pluim
2019-02-27 16:01     ` Michael Albinus
2019-02-27 16:55       ` Eli Zaretskii
2019-02-27 18:09         ` Michael Albinus
2019-02-27 16:11     ` Eli Zaretskii
2019-02-27 16:16       ` Robert Pluim
2019-02-27 16:30     ` Andreas Schwab
2019-02-27 19:40     ` lg.zevlg
2019-02-27 15:53 ` Stefan Monnier
2019-02-27 16:00   ` Robert Pluim
2019-02-27 16:15     ` Stefan Monnier
2019-02-27 16:09 ` Eli Zaretskii
2019-02-27 18:42   ` lg.zevlg
2019-02-27 18:46     ` Eli Zaretskii
2019-02-27 19:04       ` lg.zevlg
2019-02-27 19:16         ` Eli Zaretskii
2019-02-27 19:29           ` lg.zevlg
2019-02-27 19:30         ` Stefan Monnier

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