From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
To: Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>
Cc: 38736@debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#38736: 26.3; ellipsis in `*Messages*', doc of `format' etc.
Date: Wed, 25 Dec 2019 16:34:41 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <83pngcv5ha.fsf@gnu.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <006e6244-dd0a-46a8-8c61-36744b3216de@default> (message from Drew Adams on Tue, 24 Dec 2019 13:02:55 -0800 (PST))
> Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2019 13:02:55 -0800 (PST)
> From: Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>
>
> The doc string of `format' doesn't tell you anything about control by
> `print-level', `print-length', etc. Please consider adding such info.
>
> Consider trying to figure out, when looking at a message in
> `*Messages*', why a long list value shows ellipsis ("..."), instead of
> showing all the elements. You try `C-h f message', which says nothing
> about this. The most it does is provide a bunch of details about the
> formatting intermediary `format-message', imposed since Emacs 25.
How did you get the ellipsis in *Messages*? I'm guessing you invoked
'eval', because this is a feature of 'eval'. So looking for the
information in the doc string of 'message' is a somewhat strange
place. The doc string of 'eval' does mention the variables which
control when the ellipsis is produced.
> Following the `format-message' link, you still get no clue about this,
> but you then follow a link for `format'. There you still get no clue
> about it, but you see that %S uses `prin1'.
>
> Following the `prin1' link you finally find out that you can control
> `message's use of ellipsis using `print-length' and `print-level'.
>
> Users shouldn't have to go through all of that (and that even assumes
> that they are able to guess that following just that thread might get
> them somewhere useful).
>
> What's true for `message' is also true for `error', etc. At least the
> doc of `format' - and probably its often-used callers, such as `message'
> - should specifically mention these "print"-controlling (really just
> formatting) variables.
I don't think it's reasonable to ask to have this low-level stuff
bubble up to such high levels, which are quite far from the features
which are affected by these variables. %S is not a frequently used
format, so describing what prin1 does in the doc strings of 'message'
etc. just for its sake doesn't seem like a good idea to me. OTOH, I'd
expect users who use %S to know already about the ellipsis and how to
control it.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2019-12-25 14:34 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 9+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2019-12-24 21:02 bug#38736: 26.3; ellipsis in `*Messages*', doc of `format' etc Drew Adams
2019-12-25 14:34 ` Eli Zaretskii [this message]
[not found] <<006e6244-dd0a-46a8-8c61-36744b3216de@default>
[not found] ` <<83pngcv5ha.fsf@gnu.org>
2019-12-25 16:44 ` Drew Adams
2019-12-25 17:23 ` Eli Zaretskii
2019-12-26 3:24 ` Michael Heerdegen
2019-12-26 16:23 ` Eli Zaretskii
[not found] <<<006e6244-dd0a-46a8-8c61-36744b3216de@default>
[not found] ` <<<83pngcv5ha.fsf@gnu.org>
[not found] ` <<32378b4e-d158-48d5-a48c-7afde59f5d32@default>
[not found] ` <<83d0ccuxoe.fsf@gnu.org>
2019-12-25 20:54 ` Drew Adams
2019-12-26 3:28 ` Eli Zaretskii
[not found] <<<<006e6244-dd0a-46a8-8c61-36744b3216de@default>
[not found] ` <<<<83pngcv5ha.fsf@gnu.org>
[not found] ` <<<32378b4e-d158-48d5-a48c-7afde59f5d32@default>
[not found] ` <<<83d0ccuxoe.fsf@gnu.org>
[not found] ` <<4a9b955a-ac97-41d9-a373-fc37b37581a4@default>
[not found] ` <<838smzvk86.fsf@gnu.org>
2019-12-26 17:49 ` Drew Adams
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