bug#12583: latest org-mode changes exposes bug in `comment-forward'in newcomment.el

["Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> Before using the comment-* functions, you need to call 
> comment-normalize-vars.

Which comment-* functions?  All of them?

Why don't you add a specific guideline about this to the code comments or to
some doc string?

The doc string of `comment-normalize-vars' says, BTW, that it is the functions
that are autoloaded from newcomment.el that should call `c-n-v'.  But you seem
to be saying that those are not the only ones.

It is also the case that not all functions that are autoloaded from
newcomment.el call `c-n-v'.  So what exactly is the proper criterion?  (Or do
some such functions in newcomment.el perhaps need to be corrected to call
`c-n-v'?)

For my own use, I wonder whether I should be calling `c-n-v' before I make use
of `comment-search-forward'.  That function has no autoload cookie, so it does
not fit your prescription, and I have not been calling `c-n-v' and have not
noticed any problem, but I wonder anyway, since you brought this up.  Just when
is it necessary or useful to call `c-n-v'?

BTW, why are there so many things besided commands that have autoload cookies in
newcomment.el?  I know that you are not particularly in favor of unnecessarily
autoloading variables, so I wonder what the story is here.  Thx.