Re: declare function/macro private

[Arthur Miller <arthur.miller@live.com>]

Boruch Baum <boruch_baum@gmx.com> writes:

> On 2021-06-07 15:39, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> > Date: Sun, 6 Jun 2021 23:35:26 -0400
>> > From: Boruch Baum <boruch_baum@gmx.com>
>> > Cc: "Paul W. Rankin" <0278C47F-42CE-45C4-B789-83C57DF1A191@bydasein.com>,
>> >  Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>
>> >
>> > On Sun, 06 Jun 2021 22:54:41 -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote:
>> >
>> > > My current guess is that you fear that "--" has currently been used
>> > > carelessly
>> >
>> > Using 'ivy/counsel' and performing M-x -- gives me 56 completion
>> > candidates. 23 are from magit, Here are the rest:
>>
>> You need to remove from this list those which are intended for
>> invocation via the mouse.  They aren't relevant to the issue at hand,
>> because the "--" was used there "for other purposes".
>
> The point was just to support Paul Rankin's position that a '--'
> substring isn't a reliable determinant of a function's public/private
> nature, so can't be used as an alternative to an explicit (optional)
> declaration.
>
> My concern isn't the declaration, but the scope of its consequences. For
> example, an emacs user who does no elisp programming would be happy to
> have no private variable/function results appear among completion
> candidates when performing M-x describe-variable/function. Elisp
> programmers would want those completion candidates exposed, and subject
> to being extended/advised.

How would Emacs now if it was a programmer asking or not programmer
asking? :-)