Subject: Re: bug#25776: 24.5; `imenu--generic-function' is not internal

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2019 14:50:10 +0200

Drew Adams <[email-masked]> writes:

> It is a relatively recent mania to name functions and variables using
> `--' to indicate that they are internal.  This function should not be so
> named.  It is referred to in several doc strings.  We do not (should
> not) name functions specially just because we want to indicate that
> users probably do not want to redefine them or that they are especially
> likely to have their implementations changed in the future.  We don't
> name `forward-char' `forward--char' just because it is (truly)
> "internal".

That's not the meaning of -- - it's that other packages probably
shouldn't rely on them.  Everything should rely on `forward-char', so
that's not a very good comparison.

It is slightly eccentric to name a function that's that user-forward as
`imenu--generic-function' is with two dashes...  My preference would be
to not do that, but we do do similar things here and there with some
filter functions and the like that are meant to be values for variables
that can be tweaked, so I don't think this is so abnormal as all that.

So I'm closing this bug report.

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