Re: substitute-in-file-name and "$"

[Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>]

On Sun, Jul 06, 2003 at 02:20:35PM +0200, Kai Gro?johann wrote:
> Now you are saying that docstrings should specify "I invoke
> substitute-in-file-name" or "I do not invoke substitute-in-file-name".
> 
> Clearly, down that path lies madness.

Hardly.

Whether or not a function calls substitute-in-file-name makes a fairly
substantial difference in the result of the function.  Since the docstring is
supposed to say _what the function does_, it should surely mention if it
expands environment variables or not (even if substitute-in-file-name were
changed to be idempotent).

Since most functions don't do such expansion, of course, only the ones that
do need mention it.

-Miles
-- 
In New York, most people don't have cars, so if you want to kill a person, you
have to take the subway to their house.  And sometimes on the way, the train
is delayed and you get impatient, so you have to kill someone on the subway.
  [George Carlin]