Subject: RE: bug#23067: 25.0.92; A detail in the doc of query-replace

From: Drew Adams <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2016 09:08:55 -0700 (PDT)

> > If we do say things like that then that gives credence to an
> > impression that "end of buffer" might not always mean `point-max'
> > (otherwise, we would not contrast it with a description of the buffer
> > end when there is a restriction).
> 
> I don't think that "end-of-buffer" is such a good synonym for
> `point-max'.
> 
> But OTOH, this is consistent with widely used functions as `eobp' and
> `end-of-buffer'.  I didn't realize this when I created this report.
> 
> Since we will undoubtedly not rename these functions, it's best to leave
> things as they are.  I still think it was not wrong to clear up things
> in this special case, because to the user it could have made sense that
> query-replace indeed would operate up to the real end of the buffer.

I agree that our doc should be clear about which is meant.  And I
think we might want to come up with a term for "the real end of the
buffer", as you put it, to make the distinction.  I don't have a
concreate suggestion at this point.  Sometimes the doc refers to
something like "end of the accessible portion of the buffer", but
that doesn't really help, if we also expect users to understand
"end of the buffer" as the same thing.

It was good to raise the issue generally.  Dunno what the best way
to deal with it is.