Subject: 24.3.50; auto-mode-alist: Tweak docstring
From: Jambunathan K <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 09:46:12 +0530
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

Context:

perl-mode wasn't activated with just the first line below (on my perl
file).  It took sometime to figure out that `interpreter-mode-alist' is
taking precedence.

    ;; Use cperl-mode by default
    (setcdr (rassq 'perl-mode auto-mode-alist) 'cperl-mode)
    (setcdr (rassq 'perl-mode interpreter-mode-alist) 'cperl-mode)

Request:

C-h v auto-mode-alist says this

    See also `interpreter-mode-alist', which detects executable script
    ^^^^^^^^
    modes based on the interpreters they specify to run, and
    `magic-mode-alist', which determines modes based on file contents.

Instead, of "See also", it should specifically say that
`interpreter-mode-alist' takes precedence.

(Btw, seeing other variales don't help either.  Please update docstrings
for `interpreter-mode-alist' and `magic-mode-alist' with their relative
precedence.)

NB: The info entry for `auto-mode-alist' seems to talk about the order.

In GNU Emacs 24.3.50.4 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.20.1)
 of 2013-11-09 on debian-6.05
Bzr revision: 115051 [email-masked]
Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.10707000
System Description:	Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.5 (squeeze)