Hi,

I've continued thinking about this and have come up with:

Make sure this
evaluation does not load any files, or call functions like
@code{posn-at-point} or @code{window-in-direction}, which themselves
evaluate the mode line, as doing so could cause infinite recursion.

or

Make sure evaluating @var{form} does not load any files, or call functions
like
@code{posn-at-point} or @code{window-in-direction}, which themselves
evaluate the mode line, as doing so could cause infinite recursion.

I personally would highlight this. Putting that in a separate paragraph may
help
or adding a bold *CAVEAT* before. My feeling is that being in the paragraph
dilutes the importance of this kind of advices, not only here, but also in
other
places in the manuals. I know this can may take long, but IMHO this would
improve
the manuals a lot.

Best, /PA

On Wed, 4 Sept 2024 at 17:11, Stephen Berman <stephen.berman@gmx.net> wrote:

> On Wed, 04 Sep 2024 15:55:29 +0200 Stephen Berman <stephen.berman@gmx.net>
> wrote:
>
> > On Wed, 04 Sep 2024 15:25:20 +0300 Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
> >
> >>> From: Pedro Andres Aranda Gutierrez <paaguti@gmail.com>
> >>> Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2024 09:02:18 +0200
> >>>
> >>> >evaluation cannot load any files, nor calls functions like
> >>> >@code{posn-at-point} or @code{window-in-direction}, which themselves
> >>> >+evaluate the mode line, as doing so could cause infinite recursion.
> >>>
> >>> Shouldn't that be 'cannot load any files nor call functions'?
> >>
> >> No, because "calls" refers to 'evaluation", which is singular, not
> >> plural.
> >
> > The clause beginning with "nor" is a complement of "can", so the verb
> > must be a bare infinitive, i.e. "call" and not "to call", but also not
> > "calls", since that's not an infinitive form.  If you find "nor call
> > functions" hard to parse, the more explicit "nor can it call functions"
> > is an alternative.
>
> After seeing your new rewording, I see that my "more explicit"
> alternative phrasing is not good in the full sentence, which I didn't
> see when I responded (a correct alternative is "nor that it can
> call...", which sound somewhat stilted, or simply (and better) "and
> cannot call...").  (Your new rewording is fine, though I think "neither
> loads any files nor calls functions like..." might be understood to
> imply nothing else is excluded from evaluation, while with "does not
> load any files or call functions like..." that implication seems
> weaker.)
>
> Steve Berman
>


-- 
Fragen sind nicht da, um beantwortet zu werden,
Fragen sind da um gestellt zu werden
Georg Kreisler

Headaches with a Juju log:
unit-basic-16: 09:17:36 WARNING juju.worker.uniter.operation we should run
a leader-deposed hook here, but we can't yet