Subject: Re: bug#60568: [FR] 30.0.50; Help buffers and function bodies for generated functions

From: Ihor Radchenko <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2023 15:07:33 +0000

Gregory Heytings <[email-masked]> writes:

>>
>> But is it of interest for _users_? I'd rather see it in Elisp manual.
>>
>
> It should be documented in the Elisp manual, indeed.  What I said was a 
> bit unclear: I meant that a reminder should be displayed in the *Help* 
> buffer.  With this, Elisp programmers who are not aware of that subtlety 
> would become aware of it.

Then, may "13.4 Defining Functions" be a good place to link to this
subtlety?

The documentation for `defalias' is not really very clear, even now,
when I am aware about the issue herein:

     The proper place to use ‘defalias’ is where a specific function or
     macro name is being defined—especially where that name appears
     explicitly in the source file being loaded.  This is because
     ‘defalias’ records which file defined the function, just like
     ‘defun’ (*note Unloading::).

     By contrast, in programs that manipulate function definitions for
     other purposes, it is better to use ‘fset’, which does not keep
     such records.  *Note Function Cells::.

-- 
Ihor Radchenko // yantar92,
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