bug#14743: 24.3.50; doc string of `read-regexp'

bug#14743: 24.3.50; doc string of `read-regexp'

[Drew Adams]

The name DEFAULT is used with two different meanings in the doc string
(wholePARAMETER or first element of cons-valued arg).  It seems, from
looking at the code, that that is OK, in the sense that the same
behavior applies to both meanings.

However, the doc should say what happens wrt the return value if DEFAULT
is nil and the user enters empty input.  The answer, it seems, is that
the empty string is returned.

In GNU Emacs 24.3.50.1 (i686-pc-mingw32)
 of 2013-06-27 on ODIEONE
Bzr revision: 113205 dgutov@yandex.ru-20130627095155-f1lv1c7xf99g1sss
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 6.1.7601
Configured using:
 `configure --prefix=/c/Devel/emacs/binary --enable-checking=yes,glyphs
 CFLAGS=-O0 -g3 LDFLAGS=-Lc:/Devel/emacs/lib
 CPPFLAGS=-Ic:/Devel/emacs/include'

bug#14743: 24.3.50; doc string of `read-regexp'

[Drew Adams]

The PROMPT description is also not quite correct.

Suggestion:

"Read and return a regular expression as a string.
If PROMPT does not end with a colon and possibly whitespace then
append \": \" to it.

Optional argument DEFAULT is a string or a list of the form
\(DEFLT . SUGGESTIONS), where DEFLT is a string or nil.

The string DEFAULT or DEFLT is added to the prompt and is returned as
the default value if the user enters empty input.  The empty string is
returned if DEFAULT or DEFLT is nil and the user enters empty input.

SUGGESTIONS is a list of strings that can be inserted into the
minibuffer using `\\<minibuffer-local-map>\\[next-history-element]'.  The values supplied in SUGGESTIONS are
prepended to the list of standard suggestions, which include the tag
at point, the last isearch regexp, the last isearch string, and the
last replacement regexp.

Optional argument HISTORY is a symbol to use for the history list.
If nil then use `regexp-history'."

bug#14743: 24.3.50; doc string of `read-regexp'

[Juri Linkov]

> Optional argument DEFAULT is a string or a list of the form
> \(DEFLT . SUGGESTIONS), where DEFLT is a string or nil.

The name DEFLT is too obscure.

bug#14743: 24.3.50; doc string of `read-regexp'

[Drew Adams]

> > Optional argument DEFAULT is a string or a list of the form
> > \(DEFLT . SUGGESTIONS), where DEFLT is a string or nil.
> 
> The name DEFLT is too obscure.

OK.

For years we called even some very prominent command parameters DEF.
That can be confused with "def" as in "define" or "definition", but
it would probably be OK here: (DEF . SUGGESTIONS).

The parameter name should not be the same as its car.

bug#14743: 24.3.50; doc string of `read-regexp'

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

> The name DEFAULT is used with two different meanings in the doc string
> (wholePARAMETER or first element of cons-valued arg).  It seems, from
> looking at the code, that that is OK, in the sense that the same
> behavior applies to both meanings.

This seems to be fixed on the trunk.  It's now DEFAULTS and DEFAULT.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  bloggy blog http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no/

bug#14743: 24.3.50; doc string of `read-regexp'

[Drew Adams]

> This seems to be fixed on the trunk.  It's now DEFAULTS and DEFAULT.

Yes, it was fixed.