Subject: bug#19502: 24.4; Emacs 24.4 on windows: the contents of the system-configuration variable has changed, but its docstring has not. I prefer the behaviour described in the docstring.

From: Albert <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2015 10:55:14 +0100

Evaluating (insert system-configuration) gives
in emacs 24.3: i386-mingw-nt6.2.9200
in emacs 24.4: i686-pc-mingw32

The important difference here is the absence of the "nt6.2.9200" part in
emacs 24.4. I have use cases that need to know the version of the
windows emacs is currently running on. I would therefore prefer
something like "i686-pc-mingw32-nt6.2.9200" if that is somehow better or
more accurate than the original string from 24.3. Perhaps the "pc" part
is not needed?

In emacs 24.4, the docstring for the variable system-configuration is:
"system-configuration is a variable defined in `C source code'.
Its value is "i686-pc-mingw32"

Documentation:
Value is string indicating configuration Emacs was built for.
On MS-Windows, the value reflects the OS flavor and version on which
Emacs is running."

I would prefer if this docstring would remain correct.

But, while checking the contents of this entire mail, I see a version
number of 6.3.9600 reported just a few lines below. I am running
windows 8.1 nowadays so that one is more accurate. Could it be that
the windows version reported in the system-configuration variable of
emacs 24.3 is the version under which that emacs was build? In that
case, the version wouldn't be useful and even confusing.

So it seems the old emacs 24.3 behaviour is not following the
docstring either. Still, I would prefer it if the variable could live
up to its current docstring, if possible. If that is not possible, is
there another way of asking emacs on which windows version it is
running? Is it documented somewhere where I could find it?
The bug-reporting code obviously manages to do it, but when I searched
for alternatives yesterday I couldn't find any.

Thank "you" for the new version,

Albert.

In GNU Emacs 24.4.1 (i686-pc-mingw32)
 of 2014-10-24 on LEG570
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 6.3.9600
Configured using:
 `configure --prefix=/c/usr'

Important settings:
  value of $LANG: NLD
  locale-coding-system: cp1252

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
  tooltip-mode: t
  electric-indent-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  tool-bar-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent input:
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo>
<menu-bar> <buffer> C-a ( i n s e r t SPC s y s t e
m - c o n f i g u r a t i o n ) C-x C-e <left> <left>
<left> <left> <left> <left> <left> <left> <left> <left>
<left> <left> <left> <left> <left> <return> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <help-echo> <menu-bar> <help-menu> <se
nd-emacs-bug-report>

Recent messages:
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
nil

Load-path shadows:
None found.

Features:
(shadow sort gnus-util mail-extr emacsbug message format-spec rfc822 mml
easymenu mml-sec mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231
mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums
mm-util help-fns mail-prsvr mail-utils dired time-date tooltip electric
uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel dos-w32 ls-lisp
w32-common-fns disp-table w32-win w32-vars tool-bar dnd fontset image
regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list newcomment lisp-mode prog-mode register
page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock
font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cham georgian utf-8-lang
misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese hebrew
greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese
case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer nadvice
loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay
sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget
hashtable-print-readable backquote make-network-process w32notify w32
multi-tty emacs)

Memory information:
((conses 8 81100 7139)
 (symbols 32 17758 0)
 (miscs 32 38 158)
 (strings 16 11946 4623)
 (string-bytes 1 305328)
 (vectors 8 9285)
 (vector-slots 4 385622 6114)
 (floats 8 56 301)
 (intervals 28 423 131)
 (buffers 508 13))