From: Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se>
To: Richard Kim <emacs18@gmail.com>
Cc: 17403@debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#17403: 24.4.50; package-alist doc-string error
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2019 05:22:04 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CADwFkmkHCtG_jVT73qrWwLcMnJA72=c6=j=X1Z=+w2mB-6d0Jw@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <qtmbnvduhl1.fsf@gmail.com>
Richard Kim <emacs18@gmail.com> writes:
> I believe the doc-string for package-alist is incorrect.
> Each element is (PKG DESCS) rather than (PKG . DESCS), i.e.,
> each item is (list PKG DESCS) rather than (cons PKG DESCS).
> To fix this, the patch shown below can be applied.
You are correct. There is indeed a difference between what the
documentation says and what the code does. According to the code,
package-alist is *not* an alist, but a list of lists. (This goes back
to at least 2013 AFAICT.)
Yet it has the suffix "-alist".
I see three ways to rectify this:
1) Change the code so that it is an alist.
2) Update the documentation, rename the variable to
something like package-list.
3) Update the documentation, ignore that it's not an alist.
Out of these alternatives, I think the first is by far the least
attractive. It has already been changed to not be an alist once. But
which is the better of alternatives 2 and 3?
It would be good to hear what others think.
Thanks,
Stefan Kangas
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2019-07-14 3:22 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 7+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2014-05-05 1:42 bug#17403: 24.4.50; package-alist doc-string error Richard Kim
2019-07-14 3:22 ` Stefan Kangas [this message]
2019-07-14 14:26 ` Noam Postavsky
2019-07-14 15:58 ` Stefan Kangas
2019-07-17 14:23 ` Basil L. Contovounesios
2019-07-14 22:58 ` Michael Heerdegen
2019-07-17 14:10 ` Basil L. Contovounesios
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to='CADwFkmkHCtG_jVT73qrWwLcMnJA72=c6=j=X1Z=+w2mB-6d0Jw@mail.gmail.com' \
--to=stefan@marxist.se \
--cc=17403@debbugs.gnu.org \
--cc=emacs18@gmail.com \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
Code repositories for project(s) associated with this external index
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs/org-mode.git
This is an external index of several public inboxes,
see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror
all data and code used by this external index.