GNU bug report logs - #14912
24.3.50; replace.el: Replace error with user-error?

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Message #11 received at 14912 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Drew Adams <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>
To: Jambunathan K <kjambunathan <at> gmail.com>, 14912 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: RE: bug#14912: 24.3.50; replace.el: Replace error with user-error?
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 09:51:25 -0700 (PDT)

> Under these conditions, these "spurious" errors get very annoying.  I am
> wondering these qualify as `user-error' s.
> 
> Debugger entered--Lisp error: (error "No more matches")

My vote says yes - user error rather than system error.

But in fact I wonder whether we should even raise an error here,
instead of just showing an informative message.  It is neither a
system error nor a user error that there are no search hits,
a priori.

Yes, no match might in some circumstance indicate an error of
some kind.  But for regular interactive use it does not.  It is
a normal result to be expected from a normal search interaction.
Treating it as an error seems misguided, IMO.

Perhaps such behavior is a (misguided) throwback to a Unix command
such as `grep' which uses an error return value to indicate no
matches.  That is not the context here.

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