From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: [drew.adams@oracle.com: RE: Customize doc strings and tagstrings do not respect \\<...> and \\[...]] Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 02:45:55 -0500 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1171612060 7309 80.91.229.12 (16 Feb 2007 07:47:40 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 07:47:40 +0000 (UTC) Cc: drew.adams@oracle.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: "Juanma Barranquero" Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Feb 16 08:47:32 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1HHxoZ-0000Ug-BQ for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 16 Feb 2007 08:47:31 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1HHxoZ-0004Tj-0A for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 16 Feb 2007 02:47:31 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1HHxoN-0004T4-Ha for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 16 Feb 2007 02:47:19 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1HHxoM-0004Sr-Da for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 16 Feb 2007 02:47:18 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1HHxoM-0004So-8v for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 16 Feb 2007 02:47:18 -0500 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([199.232.76.164]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.52) id 1HHxoM-0001sv-08 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 16 Feb 2007 02:47:18 -0500 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1HHxn1-0004H1-4k; Fri, 16 Feb 2007 02:45:55 -0500 In-reply-to: (lekktu@gmail.com) X-detected-kernel: Linux 2.6, seldom 2.4 (older, 4) 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:66447 Archived-At: I don't remember any of the previous discussion after the lapse of a whole year. Richard said: > This could be the most useful behavior, since it provides a warning > that the keymap is not defined at the place where you expected it to > be. Any clueful user will realize it means the mode has a bug > and will report it, and then things will be fixed so they really work. What did I say that about? Do you consider using \\ in the docstring of an autoloaded function a bug in the mode? Not particularly, but how does that relate? True in theory, but the current behavior can be confusing for a newbie. Witness checkdoc-minor-mode's docstring: Toggle Checkdoc minor mode, a mode for checking Lisp doc strings. With prefix arg, turn Checkdoc minor mode on iff arg is positive. In Checkdoc minor mode, the usual bindings for `eval-defun' which is bound to Uses keymap "checkdoc-minor-mode-map", which is not currently defined. M-x checkdoc-eval-defun and `checkdoc-eval-current-buffer' are overridden to include checking of documentation strings. Is this the sort of output about which I said, "Any clueful user will realize it means the mode has a bug and will report it, and then things will be fixed so they really work."? If so, I think that is true. If the mode produces this output, it's a bug, and because it is visible it will get fixed. So, at least in the case of the output of `describe-function', `describe-variable', etc. a better answer IMHO would be to detect these cases, silently ignore them at the point where they happen, and add a prominent notice somewhere (preferibly at the top): NOTE: This documentation references the keymap "checkdoc-minor-mode-map", which is not currently defined. You can load the package `checkdoc' to fix the problem. That seems like a good solution too, since it will also make the bug visible.