bug#42492: Documentation error in summary at top of section 17.1, emacs.info (emacs-27 branch)

[Bob Halley <halley@play-bow.org>]

The summary info about keyboard macro key bindings at the start of section 17.1 of emacs.info says:

‘<F4>’
‘C-x e’
     If a keyboard macro is being defined, end the definition;
     otherwise, execute the most recent keyboard macro
     (‘kmacro-end-or-call-macro’).

This suggests that <F4> and C-x e are both bound to kmacro-end-or-call-macro.  <F4> is, but C-x e is not; it is bound to kmacro-end-and-call-macro by the autoloads in kmacro.el (note "and" vs "or"):

;;; Provide some binding for startup:
;;;###autoload (global-set-key "\C-x(" 'kmacro-start-macro)
;;;###autoload (global-set-key "\C-x)" 'kmacro-end-macro)
;;;###autoload (global-set-key "\C-xe" 'kmacro-end-and-call-macro)
;;;###autoload (global-set-key [f3] 'kmacro-start-macro-or-insert-counter)
;;;###autoload (global-set-key [f4] 'kmacro-end-or-call-macro)

The text further down in this section describes the bindings correctly:

   In addition to the <F3> and <F4> commands described above, Emacs also
supports an older set of key bindings for defining and executing
keyboard macros.  To begin a macro definition, type ‘C-x (’
(‘kmacro-start-macro’); as with <F3>, a prefix argument appends this
definition to the last keyboard macro.  To end a macro definition, type
‘C-x )’ (‘kmacro-end-macro’).  To execute the most recent macro, type
‘C-x e’ (‘kmacro-end-and-call-macro’).  If you enter ‘C-x e’ while
defining a macro, the macro is terminated and executed immediately.
Immediately after typing ‘C-x e’, you can type ‘e’ repeatedly to
immediately repeat the macro one or more times.  You can also give ‘C-x
e’ a repeat argument, just like <F4> (when it is used to execute a
macro).

So, I think this is just a problem with the summary.  It might be appropriate for the summary to mention C-x ) too, as if you don't want to use function keys, you can't tell how to end a macro without executing it.

/Bob

(And my thanks to everyone maintaining emacs!)


In GNU Emacs 27.0.91 (build 1, x86_64-apple-darwin19.5.0, NS appkit-1894.50 Version 10.15.5 (Build 19F101))
 of 2020-07-10 built on howl.local
Repository revision: 6290850dac130521551913ce78671fcccfe5c0f3
Repository branch: emacs-27
Windowing system distributor 'Apple', version 10.3.1894
System Description:  Mac OS X 10.15.6

Configured using:
 'configure --without-x --with-ns -with-wide-int
 LIBXML2_CFLAGS=-I/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/include/libxml2
 LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/opt/texinfo/lib --without-pop'

Configured features:
NOTIFY KQUEUE ACL GNUTLS LIBXML2 ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS NS MODULES
THREADS PDUMPER GMP

Important settings:
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Major mode: Emacs-Lisp

Minor modes in effect:
  pyvenv-mode: t
  shell-dirtrack-mode: t
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  tooltip-mode: t
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  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
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  transient-mark-mode: t

Load-path shadows:
None found.

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