From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Barry Margolin Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: buffer variable values Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2012 14:08:29 -0400 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Message-ID: References: <1345879991873-262330.post@n5.nabble.com> T=8Wpjn3nKerpP==xsxhtowq6KerknppOOJ6EGJLSn-ig@mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 345882475223-266332.post@n5.nabbbbbbbbb NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1345918215 3035 80.91.229.3 (25 Aug 2012 18:10:15 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2012 18:10:15 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Aug 25 20:10:16 2012 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1T5KoH-0005dt-J4 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 25 Aug 2012 20:10:13 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:36758 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1T5KoF-0006KS-Ab for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 25 Aug 2012 14:10:11 -0400 Original-Received: by 10.180.95.2 with SMTP id dg2mr943003wib.2.1345918111235; Sat, 25 Aug 2012 11:08:31 -0700 (PDT) Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!7no45386538wig.0!news-out.google.com!q11ni312291787wiw.1!nntp.google.com!feeder2.cambriumusenet.nl!feed.tweaknews.nl!195.62.100.242.MISMATCH!newsfeed.kamp.net!newsfeed.kamp.net!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!mx04.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 42 Injection-Info: barmar.motzarella.org; posting-host="78fb7125a45724f15e21604c94a7d968"; logging-data="25168"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18zY1lZOqyDObM0pfJNj+k5" User-Agent: MT-NewsWatcher/3.5.3b3 (Intel Mac OS X) Cancel-Lock: sha1:JK538o50Jxo57N9GIEPt2X5I2os= Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:194142 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:86507 Archived-At: In article , "Drew Adams" wrote: > > Was insert-buffer ever meant to be called non-interactively, > > though? The newer insert-buffer has this in its documentation: > > > > "This function is meant for the user to run interactively. > > Don't call it from programs: use `insert-buffer-substring' instead!" > > Barry M. gave the short answer: > > "Just because it's not *meant* to be used from programs > doesn't mean it shouldn't work reasonably when it is." > > "Shouldn't" could be "couldn't" here. It was a design choice to make it > "work > reasonably" for a buffer-name argument, for convenience. > > That short answer is repeated as #2 here: > > 1. "Meant to be" is pretty loose in Lisp. What you see in a doc string does > not > necessarily convey all possibilities and situations. It is intended as > general > guidance, to help you. This is not the Napoleon code. > > You will sometimes see imperative directives such as "Don't...", like here. > Take them as if they were polite guidance/advice, in the spirit of "You > probably > don't want to..." They are generally just trying to remind you that this is > something that you probably do not want to do here. Another issue is backward compatibility. Perhaps at one time the function was commonly used from programs, but when the preferred alternative was added they put that warning into the documentation. But the function still has to work properly for all the old code that was calling it before this. -- Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***