From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.bugs Subject: bug#37507: 26.3; Non-number value for `fill-column' causes wrong-type-arg error for `C-h f' Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 09:37:23 +0300 Message-ID: <837e5wop98.fsf@gnu.org> References: <326973dd-0844-40e1-ad2e-55b3a7ea35bf@default> <85lfudjwt0.fsf@gmail.com> Injection-Info: blaine.gmane.org; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:195.159.176.226"; logging-data="36256"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@blaine.gmane.org" Cc: 37507@debbugs.gnu.org To: Noam Postavsky Original-X-From: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Sep 25 08:38:12 2019 Return-path: Envelope-to: geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1iD0wF-0009Jr-TV for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 25 Sep 2019 08:38:12 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:45946 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1iD0wE-0005Vn-6R for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 25 Sep 2019 02:38:10 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:37109) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1iD0w6-0005Vc-Uz for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 25 Sep 2019 02:38:03 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1iD0w5-0008HB-W8 for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 25 Sep 2019 02:38:02 -0400 Original-Received: from debbugs.gnu.org ([209.51.188.43]:60175) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1iD0w5-0008H3-TS for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 25 Sep 2019 02:38:01 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-debbugs by debbugs.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1iD0w5-0003VW-P1 for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 25 Sep 2019 02:38:01 -0400 X-Loop: help-debbugs@gnu.org Resent-From: Eli Zaretskii Original-Sender: "Debbugs-submit" Resent-CC: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Resent-Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2019 06:38:01 +0000 Resent-Message-ID: Resent-Sender: help-debbugs@gnu.org X-GNU-PR-Message: followup 37507 X-GNU-PR-Package: emacs Original-Received: via spool by 37507-submit@debbugs.gnu.org id=B37507.156939346613461 (code B ref 37507); Wed, 25 Sep 2019 06:38:01 +0000 Original-Received: (at 37507) by debbugs.gnu.org; 25 Sep 2019 06:37:46 +0000 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:40763 helo=debbugs.gnu.org) by debbugs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1iD0vo-0003V1-6V for submit@debbugs.gnu.org; Wed, 25 Sep 2019 02:37:44 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([209.51.188.92]:56813) by debbugs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1iD0vm-0003Uk-N5 for 37507@debbugs.gnu.org; Wed, 25 Sep 2019 02:37:43 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::e]:56442) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1iD0vg-00087w-OC; Wed, 25 Sep 2019 02:37:36 -0400 Original-Received: from [176.228.60.248] (port=3980 helo=home-c4e4a596f7) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtpsa (TLS1.2:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:256) (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1iD0vg-0000u3-34; Wed, 25 Sep 2019 02:37:36 -0400 In-reply-to: <85lfudjwt0.fsf@gmail.com> (message from Noam Postavsky on Tue, 24 Sep 2019 15:53:15 -0400) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-BeenThere: debbugs-submit@debbugs.gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18 Precedence: list X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 209.51.188.43 X-BeenThere: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org List-Id: "Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "bug-gnu-emacs" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.bugs:167136 Archived-At: > From: Noam Postavsky > Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2019 15:53:15 -0400 > Cc: 37507@debbugs.gnu.org > > Drew Adams writes: > > > `fill-column' is supposed to have an integer value > 0. > > > > But if it has a non-numeric value then other functions can barf, unless > > they watch out for that. > > Shouldn't users just not set it to a non-numeric value then? I'm sure > you can cause all sort of errors by setting things to invalid values. > > > emacs -Q > > > > (setq fill-column nil) > > Do you mean setq-default (otherwise I can't reproduce)? I agree that this is a cockpit error. Users who are prone to such mistakes should use Customize to set values of variables. Users who use setq-default should know what they are doing. It is unreasonable to request that we have an explicit test for valid values in every place that references a variable. Our protection is that we signal an error, and that should IMO be good enough in cases such as this one. P.S. This bug report came from a question on Reddit, where it received the same responses.