Subject: bug#13571: 24.3.50; doc of `interactive'

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2016 00:23:07 +0200

"Drew Adams" <[email-masked]> writes:

> 1. For `v' it should not say "Variable name", even if it also mentions
> `custom-variable-p'.  It should speak of "option", not "variable".  E.g.:
>
>  Option: a symbol that is `custom-variable-p'.  The name is read.
>
> A user should not need to click `custom-variable-p', or be already
> familiar with that Lisp predicate, to understand that this reads
> an option name, not the name of an arbitrary variable.

I disagree.  Saying that it's a variable helps with understanding here.

> 2. There is confusion in the doc string and in (elisp) `Interactive Codes'
> regarding (a) what a given interactive code reads and (b) what value it
> returns/provides for the argument.
>
> In particular, we misleadingly see mention of "name" here and there.
>
> A name is read in such cases, but a name, i.e., a string, is not always what is
> returned.  In many cases, a symbol is returned.  A symbol is a special Lisp
> object, and definitely not a name.  It has a name, as well as other properties.
>
> Some of the entries, such as `b', are correct: they read and return a name, not
> the object named (e.g. a buffer).
>
> The following entries incorrectly speak of "name".  They read names, but they
> return symbols, and the doc is not clear about this.
>
> a
> C
> v
> z
> Z

All these say that are symbols, and I think that's clear enough.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no