On Saturday, August 25, 2012, drain <aeuster@gmail.com> wrote:
> If this function did not read input from the user, the OR expression would
> serve a purpose; since "buffer" could have been assigned an actual buffer
> elsewhere in the body of a larger function (that insert-buffer had been
> embedded into).

Replace "embedded into" with "called by," and you've answered your own
question.

-- 
-PJ

Gehm's Corollary to Clark's Law: Any technology distinguishable from
magic is insufficiently advanced.