From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: symbol-at-point Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:01:12 -0400 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1185595287 21658 80.91.229.12 (28 Jul 2007 04:01:27 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2007 04:01:27 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Andreas Rohler , emacs-devel@gnu.org To: "Drew Adams" Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Jul 28 06:01:20 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 1IEdUV-0007HV-JQ for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 28 Jul 2007 06:01:19 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1IEdUV-0002O4-8X for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:01:19 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1IEdUS-0002Nz-16 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:01:16 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1IEdUP-0002Nn-Tc for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:01:15 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1IEdUP-0002Nk-PK for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:01:13 -0400 Original-Received: from tomts20.bellnexxia.net ([209.226.175.74] helo=tomts20-srv.bellnexxia.net) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1IEdUP-0001xS-9h for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:01:13 -0400 Original-Received: from pastel.home ([70.53.195.62]) by tomts20-srv.bellnexxia.net (InterMail vM.5.01.06.13 201-253-122-130-113-20050324) with ESMTP id <20070728040112.MRKG8273.tomts20-srv.bellnexxia.net@pastel.home> for ; Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:01:12 -0400 Original-Received: by pastel.home (Postfix, from userid 20848) id 04BC9896C; Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:01:11 -0400 (EDT) In-Reply-To: (Drew Adams's message of "Fri\, 27 Jul 2007 16\:22\:07 -0700") User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.1.50 (gnu/linux) X-detected-kernel: Solaris 8 (1) 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:75737 Archived-At: > It's my hope that the restriction to point has itself held back the use of > thingatpt functions, and that offering the "near" functions might help > users get better default values. I'm pretty sure that -near-point would not make authors provide default values in more cases. -at-point works well enough in most cases that it's hard to believe an author would say "oh, no: I want -near-point or nothing at all. None of that -at-point crap!" > (FWIW, the danger you see from a nil return value for `symbol-at-point' is > exaggerated, I think, since a non-nil symbol would generally be what is > sought. nil can always be interpreted as "no, there is no non-nil symbol at > point". Yes, the name of the function does not make this clear.) Problem is that "nil" is a perfectly normal identifier in most languages. Stefan