.emacs parsing problem

.emacs parsing problem

[Farhan Ahmed]

Hi there,

I'm getting this error using the CEDET package customizations in my .emacs
file:

Idle Work Including Error: "#<buffer .emacs> - Wrong type argument:
number-or-marker-p, (512 39 . 8739)"

What do the numbers at the end of the error message indicate? How do I
find out what exactly is causing the problem?

Thanks,

Farhan

Re: .emacs parsing problem

[Anselm Helbig]

Hi!

> I'm getting this error using the CEDET package customizations in my .emacs
> file:
> 
> Idle Work Including Error: "#<buffer .emacs> - Wrong type argument:
> number-or-marker-p, (512 39 . 8739)"
> 
> What do the numbers at the end of the error message indicate? 
  
A function was expecting a number or a marker (an object describing a
position in a buffer), but it got the list (512 39 . 8739) instead. I
have no idea where these numbers come from. 
                                                              
> How do I find out what exactly is causing the problem?

You start emacs with the --debug-init option.

HTH, 

Anselm


-- 
Anselm Helbig 
mailto:anselm.helbig+news2009@googlemail.com

Re: .emacs parsing problem

[Pascal J. Bourguignon]

Anselm Helbig <anselm.helbig+news2009@googlemail.com> writes:

> Hi!
>
>> I'm getting this error using the CEDET package customizations in my .emacs
>> file:
>> 
>> Idle Work Including Error: "#<buffer .emacs> - Wrong type argument:
>> number-or-marker-p, (512 39 . 8739)"
>> 
>> What do the numbers at the end of the error message indicate? 
>   
> A function was expecting a number or a marker (an object describing a
> position in a buffer), but it got the list (512 39 . 8739) instead. I
> have no idea where these numbers come from. 

emacs lisp has no bignums.  Integer range is limited to fixnum, which
is 27 bits IIRC on 32-bit machines, and 59 bits on 64-bit machines.

You can use the following function to determine it:

(defun compute-most-positive-fixnum ()
  (loop
     for p from 0
     for i = 1 then n
     for n = (* 2 i)
     while (< i n)
     finally (return (truncate (1- (expt 2.0 p))))))


Some numbers need a bigger range, and therefore need to be represented
as a list of numbers.  AFAIK, the only case where it's done by emacs,
is with dates, as returned by current-time:
(current-time) --> (19095 60141 366049)
but it returns a proper list, not a dotted list.


>> How do I find out what exactly is causing the problem?
>
> You start emacs with the --debug-init option.

And search in the functions listed in the backtrace where the wrong
data item may come from.

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__