From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Drew Adams" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: describe-variable with string arg Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 15:37:21 -0700 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1174689458 25703 80.91.229.12 (23 Mar 2007 22:37:38 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 22:37:38 +0000 (UTC) To: "Emacs-Devel" Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Mar 23 23:37:37 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1HUsO6-0002aS-NF for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 23 Mar 2007 23:37:34 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1HUsQ3-0003Hn-B9 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 23 Mar 2007 17:39:35 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1HUsQ0-0003HN-0Q for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:39:32 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1HUsPy-0003Fl-BA for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:39:31 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1HUsPy-0003Fi-37 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Mar 2007 17:39:30 -0500 Original-Received: from rgminet01.oracle.com ([148.87.113.118]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1HUsO0-0001Fq-L1 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:37:28 -0400 Original-Received: from rgmgw2.us.oracle.com (rgmgw2.us.oracle.com [138.1.186.111]) by rgminet01.oracle.com (Switch-3.2.4/Switch-3.1.6) with ESMTP id l2NMbPR9012202 for ; Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:37:26 -0600 Original-Received: from acsmt350.oracle.com (acsmt350.oracle.com [141.146.40.150]) by rgmgw2.us.oracle.com (Switch-3.2.4/Switch-3.1.7) with ESMTP id l2NMAxTc026830 for ; Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:37:25 -0600 Original-Received: from dhcp-amer-whq-csvpn-gw3-141-144-82-41.vpn.oracle.com by acsmt350.oracle.com with ESMTP id 2559310551174689443; Fri, 23 Mar 2007 15:37:23 -0700 X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3028 X-Whitelist: TRUE X-Whitelist: TRUE X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAAI= X-detected-kernel: Linux 2.4-2.6 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:68438 Archived-At: describe-variable expects a symbol, not a symbol-name (string). In Emacs 20, passing it a symbol name leads to an error message. Starting with Emacs 21, the message is displayed via `message', not `error'. AFAICT, no Emacs code depends on this use of `message' instead of `error'. The latter makes more sense to me. Beyond that, why not let `describe-variable' try a little harder, to use `intern' applied to its arg, if that is a string? That would be friendlier to possible 3rd-party code that might generically apply a function such as `describe-variable' to an arg that might be a symbol name instead of a symbol.