From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Docstrings and manuals Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2016 20:25:36 -0400 Message-ID: References: <6ok2vyzwf9.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> <08f70cda-44be-0657-e50a-2b2c80d2c21c@yandex.ru> <87oa9dzgl0.fsf@gmx.de> <87potshczh.fsf@gmx.de> <87h9f4ghzg.fsf@gmx.de> <8737qnc8ep.fsf@gmx.de> <87k2jwd3gr.fsf_-_@gmx.de> <8dfdfe5d-41fe-7c05-0054-0bd3e589390e@yandex.ru> <831t64b7l0.fsf@gnu.org> <3c95a1a7-a334-73e7-0644-71aa0d862b50@yandex.ru> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=Utf-8 X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1461025559 27386 80.91.229.3 (19 Apr 2016 00:25:59 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2016 00:25:59 +0000 (UTC) Cc: rgm@gnu.org, eliz@gnu.org, michael.albinus@gmx.de, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Dmitry Gutov Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Apr 19 02:25:51 2016 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1asJUE-00052B-79 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 19 Apr 2016 02:25:50 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:47664 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1asJUD-0007TK-LL for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 18 Apr 2016 20:25:49 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:48694) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1asJU9-0007Op-95 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 18 Apr 2016 20:25:45 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1asJU8-0002CX-Ff for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 18 Apr 2016 20:25:45 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:59658) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1asJU1-00022m-Ex; Mon, 18 Apr 2016 20:25:37 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1asJU0-0006uF-FM; Mon, 18 Apr 2016 20:25:36 -0400 In-reply-to: (message from Dmitry Gutov on Mon, 18 Apr 2016 12:50:22 +0300) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:203078 Archived-At: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] > How come it can be more important to mention in the manual? Returning > nil is either a part of the function's contract, or not. We don't divide up the function's behaviors in that all-or-nothing way. Since the return value is documented in the manual, it is something we would not change without a good reason. However, that doesn't mean it needs to be stated in the doc string. -- Dr Richard Stallman President, Free Software Foundation (gnu.org, fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (internethalloffame.org) Skype: No way! See stallman.org/skype.html.