Subject: Re: bug#20625: 25.0.50; doc of `define-error` is incorrect

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2016 21:25:11 +0200

Drew Adams <[email-masked]> writes:

>>>From `C-h f':
>
>  (define-error NAME MESSAGE &optional PARENT)
>
>  Define NAME as a new error signal.
>  MESSAGE is a string that will be output to the echo area if such an error
>  is signaled without being caught by a `condition-case'.
>  PARENT is either a signal or a list of signals from which it inherits.
>  Defaults to `error'.
>
> No, MESSAGE is not necessarily a string. It is a required argument, but
> the code explicitly makes use of the case where it is nil.  And existing
> code delivered with Emacs (e.g. bookmark.el) makes use of a nil MESSAGE.
> That case should be documented.

The function doesn't error out if MESSAGE isn't a string, but it still
shouldn't be.  So I don't think that's a bug.

Feel free to submit a new bug report for bookmark.el not supplying a
string.

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