From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: No return value in doc string Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:07:46 -0400 Organization: Bell Sympatico Message-ID: <87fyjy6b09.fsf-monnier+gnu.emacs.help@gnu.org> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1146170470 32397 80.91.229.2 (27 Apr 2006 20:41:10 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 20:41:10 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Apr 27 22:41:08 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1FZDHr-0001yW-2R for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 27 Apr 2006 22:40:32 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1FZDHq-0002d0-Ca for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:40:30 -0400 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!newsfeed.news2me.com!wns13feed!worldnet.att.net!207.35.177.252!nf3.bellglobal.com!nf1.bellglobal.com!nf2.bellglobal.com!news20.bellglobal.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.0.50 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:nWIP98jwOCAyAMs1FBQaEY+WotI= Original-Lines: 20 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 70.55.144.118 Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@sympatico.ca Original-X-Trace: news20.bellglobal.com 1146168468 70.55.144.118 (Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:07:48 EDT) Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:07:48 EDT Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:139069 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:34690 Archived-At: > Is there any policy for the documentation string of the return value? > The Elisp programming guidelines just mention that the documentation > string for functions should answer the question "What does this > function do?". So I'd consider leaving out the return value in a doc > string of an interactive function a failure (please have a look at > `next-line' `previous-line' and `make-frame'). When called interactively, a function's return value is simply ignored, so if a function is expected to only be called interactively, there is no reason to document the return value. Also if the function makes no effort to return anything useful, it might be better not to document what the return value happens to be. > Should I report this as bugs or is this a bit over the top? Your call, Stefan