GNU bug report logs - #17403
24.4.50; package-alist doc-string error

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Message #25 received at control <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "Basil L. Contovounesios" <contovob <at> tcd.ie>
To: Stefan Kangas <stefan <at> marxist.se>
Cc: 17403 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Noam Postavsky <npostavs <at> gmail.com>
Subject: Re: bug#17403: 24.4.50; package-alist doc-string error
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2019 15:23:03 +0100

tags 17403 notabug
close 17403
quit

Stefan Kangas <stefan <at> marxist.se> writes:

> Is it a problem that this is documented as "(PKG . DESCS)" when the
> printed representation is "(PKG DESCS)"?

No, because the implicit printed representation is actually
(PKG DESC...), not (PKG DESCS).  In other words, the cadr of each alist
element is a single package-desc structure, not a list thereof.  Both
the code and the docstring agree on this AFAICT.

Dotted notation is often employed in documentation in order to more
explicitly describe metasyntactic structure.  This may initially confuse
users who see the implicit printed representation, but sooner or later
all Emacsites ought to learn that (A B) is equivalent to (A . (B)).

> If not, we can close this as notabug.

Done, thanks.

-- 
Basil

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