GNU bug report logs - #4869
23.1.50; weak documentation of prefer-coding-system

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Package: emacs;

Reported by: Joseph Brenner <doom <at> kzsu.stanford.edu>

Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 22:10:04 UTC

Severity: minor

Tags: fixed

Fixed in version 24.1

Done: Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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Message #15 received at 4869 <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: Lennart Borgman <lennart.borgman <at> gmail.com>
To: Juri Linkov <juri <at> jurta.org>, 4869 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Cc: Joseph Brenner <doom <at> kzsu.stanford.edu>
Subject: Re: bug#4869: 23.1.50; weak documentation of prefer-coding-system
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 03:50:03 +0100

On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 2:47 AM, Juri Linkov <juri <at> jurta.org> wrote:
>> The function prefer-coding-system does not explain if the CODING-SYSTEM
>> argument must be a symbol or a string (or either).
>>
>> Without seeing a code example, a user might try using a quoted string:
>>
>>    (prefer-coding-system "utf-8")
>>
>> In which case, the error message is very confusing (this makes it sound
>> as though utf-8 is not supported):
>>
>>    error: Invalid coding system `utf-8'
>>
>> At a minimum, the documentation should be made more explicit, and I
>> would strongly suggest adding a code example:
>>
>>    (prefer-coding-system 'utf-8)
>
> Why not allow both?  Some MULE functions allow a symbol and a string.

Because it is at least a rudimentary type check? ;-)
This bug report was last modified 13 years and 321 days ago.

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