From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Barry Margolin Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: obarray Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2013 00:58:59 -0500 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Message-ID: References: <87haabq6gl.fsf@nl106-137-194.student.uu.se> <87bo0irj13.fsf@nl106-137-194.student.uu.se> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1387087218 4011 80.91.229.3 (15 Dec 2013 06:00:18 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2013 06:00:18 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Dec 15 07:00:24 2013 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@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 1Vs4ka-00058B-Fl for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 15 Dec 2013 07:00:24 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:49840 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Vs4ka-0002Ox-3w for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 15 Dec 2013 01:00:24 -0500 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!news.kjsl.com!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!barmar.motzarella.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 22 Injection-Info: barmar.motzarella.org; posting-host="2be9e9f5dd9af768b8861af71b85fc28"; logging-data="4942"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+pwJnShAzFupaCgaM6574/" User-Agent: MT-NewsWatcher/3.5.3b3 (Intel Mac OS X) Cancel-Lock: sha1:wl1keYEjBTjj8Wexzi1pHJ/zCIQ= Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:202741 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:95010 Archived-At: In article , Michael Heerdegen wrote: > All that need to know is that obarray is a thing that holds all > essential symbols (variables), and that it is a valid COLLECTION > argument for `completing-read'. It's also important to know that not everything in it is a variable. Symbols also name functions, and they're also often used as literal objects by themselves (e.g. when you see them quoted). And many symbols that are variables are just local variables internal to functions (not to be confused with buffer-local variables); these shouldn't show up in describe-variable. That's why the completing-read collection that describe-variable uses checks whether the symbol is bound or has a variable-documentation property. -- Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***