From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Drew Adams" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: RE: void variable problem Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 11:13:04 -0700 Message-ID: References: <87aagl92xk.fsf@engels.HistoricalMaterialism.info> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1300904076 9519 80.91.229.12 (23 Mar 2011 18:14:36 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:14:36 +0000 (UTC) To: "'Haines Brown'" , Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Mar 23 19:14:32 2011 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Q2SZj-0002JQ-EY for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:14:31 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:43123 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Q2SZi-0007fd-JZ for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:14:30 -0400 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=58000 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Q2SYR-0007De-DE for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:13:12 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Q2SYQ-0003Yt-0i for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:13:11 -0400 Original-Received: from rcsinet10.oracle.com ([148.87.113.121]:55805) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Q2SYP-0003Yc-Qk for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:13:09 -0400 Original-Received: from rcsinet15.oracle.com (rcsinet15.oracle.com [148.87.113.117]) by rcsinet10.oracle.com (Switch-3.4.2/Switch-3.4.2) with ESMTP id p2NID7X3024153 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:13:08 GMT Original-Received: from acsmt358.oracle.com (acsmt358.oracle.com [141.146.40.158]) by rcsinet15.oracle.com (Switch-3.4.2/Switch-3.4.1) with ESMTP id p2NID65b031510 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:13:06 GMT Original-Received: from abhmt003.oracle.com (abhmt003.oracle.com [141.146.116.12]) by acsmt358.oracle.com (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p2NID5aQ023105; Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:13:05 -0500 Original-Received: from dradamslap1 (/130.35.178.194) by default (Oracle Beehive Gateway v4.0) with ESMTP ; Wed, 23 Mar 2011 11:13:05 -0700 X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 In-Reply-To: <87aagl92xk.fsf@engels.HistoricalMaterialism.info> Thread-Index: AcvpgV2Qd8tTXws1SGqfllqyXeWnmQAA47GA X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5994 X-Source-IP: acsmt358.oracle.com [141.146.40.158] X-Auth-Type: Internal IP X-CT-RefId: str=0001.0A090206.4D8A3832.025D,ss=1,fgs=0 X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-Received-From: 148.87.113.121 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:80351 Archived-At: > I installed synonyms.el, and it depends on access to mthesar.txt. So I > created: /home/haines/mthesaur/mthesaur.txt and in .emacs > access it with the line > (setq synonyms-file /home/haines/mthesaur/mthesaur.txt) > But when emacs loads, I get this error: > (void-variable /home/haines/mthesaur/mthesaur\.txt) > > What does the backshash in "mthesaur\.txt" mean? Eli already mentioned that the file-name value needs to be string (i.e. "..."). The error message shows that Emacs read the symbol named `mthesaur.txt' and tried to find its value as a variable. When printing the symbol name, Emacs escapes the `.' with a backslash. Instead of using (setq synonyms-file...) you can use Customize (command `customize-option'). I recommend this. Or you can just start using command `synonyms' and it will prompt you for the file to use. And if you want Emacs to remember this, then use `customize option' to save it. This is all explained in file synonyms.el, in the Commentary (file header).