Subject: Re: bug#50621: 28.0.50; Flymake wrong message about y-or-n-p

From: Stefan Kangas <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2021 08:05:50 -0700

Lars Ingebrigtsen <[email-masked]> writes:

>> M-x checkdoc complains about this as well, so I guess it is more a
>> checkdoc than a Flymake problem here.
>
> Yeah, I guess all of the y-or-n-p stuff should be removed from
> checkdoc.el?  Or should it still verify that the string ends with a
> question mark?  I've added Stefan to the CCs; perhaps he has an opinion
> here.

As the NEWS item points out, the behavior was changed [IMO for the
better] already in 2014 (commit 298520dfb7f6). The question now is what
to do with Flymake/checkdoc, and I see three ways forward:

 A) We remove this check.
 B) We change it to only warn about a missing question mark.
 C) We change it as in B, but also warn about a spurious space.

Alternative A is the easiest one, but loses functionality.

Alternative B is better, but leaves a spurious space where it's not
needed.

Alternative C will cause some code-churn, but is also formally the most
correct one. It might also save someones sanity if they are trying to
fit a line into a 80 or 100 character limit.

My preference is for, in order: C > B > A.