From: "Andreas Röhler" <andreas.roehler@easy-emacs.de>
To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: Re: thing-at-point: inconsistent behaviour?
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 18:24:01 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <502D1EA1.8070803@easy-emacs.de> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <barmar-35AE2D.11481616082012@news.eternal-september.org>
Am 16.08.2012 17:48, schrieb Barry Margolin:
> In article <mailman.7107.1345117968.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>,
> Andreas Röhler <andreas.roehler@easy-emacs.de> wrote:
>
>> Am 15.08.2012 21:00, schrieb Raffaele Ricciardi:
>>> On 08/15/2012 07:34 PM, Barry Margolin wrote:
>>> > In article <a926tjFeslU1@mid.individual.net>,
>>> > Raffaele Ricciardi <rfflrccrd@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> Hello there,
>>> >>
>>> >> the documentation of `thing-at-point' states that such function returns
>>> >> "the
>>> >> thing around or next to point". This is not the case with either
>>> >> (thing-at-point
>>> >> 'symbol) or (thing-at-point 'sexp), for they both may return the thing
>>> >> before
>>> >> point. Try it with the following snippet (! symbolizes the point):
>>> >
>>> > Doesn't "next to" include both immediately before and immediately after?
>>>
>>> I stand corrected after having consulted a dictionary. Then it is
>>> (thing-at-point 'list) that is misbehaving.
>>>
>>
>>
>> hmm, IMHO you was right. Here is the code
>>
>> (defun symbol-at-point ()
>> "Return the symbol at point, or nil if none is found."
>> (let ((thing (thing-at-point 'symbol)))
>> (if thing (intern thing))))
>>
>> last line don't return the thing as delivered by thing-at-point but the
>> result of (intern thing)
>>
>> that way breaking consistency.
>
> That function has nothing to do with the problem he's reporting. It's
> just an extra utility function that makes use of thing-at-point to
> return something that may be useful in certain situations.
>
okay, as it happens it's for years in my mind: that symbol-at-point breaks consistency.
Another approach to give the reasons:
IMO basically two ways of returns are feasible by such a thing-at-point library
- deliver objects from editing perspective, i.e as buffer-substrings
- deliver objects for use in programs
The latter seems the focus so far.
Not to expect is changing the computers internal state already when picking an object by thing-at-point.
That's what is done by "intern" however.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2012-08-16 16:24 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 14+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2012-08-15 18:08 thing-at-point: inconsistent behaviour? Raffaele Ricciardi
2012-08-15 18:34 ` Barry Margolin
2012-08-15 18:44 ` Drew Adams
2012-08-15 19:00 ` Raffaele Ricciardi
2012-08-16 11:52 ` Andreas Röhler
[not found] ` <mailman.7107.1345117968.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2012-08-16 15:48 ` Barry Margolin
2012-08-16 16:24 ` Andreas Röhler [this message]
[not found] ` <mailman.7114.1345134264.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2012-08-16 17:12 ` Raffaele Ricciardi
2012-08-16 23:19 ` Barry Margolin
2012-08-17 0:46 ` Drew Adams
[not found] ` <mailman.7128.1345164390.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2012-08-17 1:46 ` Barry Margolin
2012-08-17 4:38 ` Drew Adams
[not found] ` <mailman.7135.1345178331.855.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2012-08-17 9:23 ` Raffaele Ricciardi
2012-08-20 0:15 ` Drew Adams
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