Subject: bug#38248: closed (Re: bug#38248: help-follow-symbol silent when no symbol was found)

From: [email-masked] (GNU bug Tracking System)
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2019 20:14:04 +0000

Your bug report

#38248: help-follow-symbol silent when no symbol was found

which was filed against the emacs package, has been closed.

The explanation is attached below, along with your original report.
If you require more details, please reply to [email-masked].

-- 
38248: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=38248
GNU Bug Tracking System
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Subject: Re: bug#38248: help-follow-symbol silent when no symbol was found
From: Juanma Barranquero <[email-masked]>
To: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Cc: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <[email-masked]>, [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2019 21:13:03 +0100
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

Committed as b7d4c5d1d1b55fea8382663f18263e2000678be5

Subject: help-follow-symbol silent when no symbol was found
From: Juanma Barranquero <[email-masked]>
To: Bug-Gnu-Emacs <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2019 20:40:33 +0100
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

Package: emacs
Severity: minor
Tags: patch

Currently, help-follow and help-follow-mouse signal an error if there's
nothing to follow. However, help-follow-symbol does not, which means that
C-c C-c in the help buffer when over an arbitrary non-symbol does nothing
and says nothing.

That's not just inconsistent, but a bit disconcerting, as sometimes
following a symbol can be slow. In my build, it takes a second or more to
show the symbol documentation, so when there's no symbol I stand waiting
for something to happen for a couple of seconds.

The following patch fixes that. The only reason against I can think of is
when `help-follow-symbol' is called from elisp, because it will now signal
an error. However, at least in the Emacs sources help-follow-symbol is
never called from elisp, just as a keybinding or menu entry.