Subject: RE: bug#6493:

From: "Drew Adams" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:26:59 -0700

> How about this:
> "Return the smaller of the integer value of point or the mark."
> (`value' is used in the doc strings of 'point' and `mark'.)

The scope of "the integer value of" is ambiguous.  Does it apply to "point or
the mark" or to just to "point"?  In the latter case, if the mark is smaller
than the integer value of point then the mark is returned.  (Yes, a marker can
be compared numerically.)

And in that case, it is incorrect.  The mark is a marker.  A marker is never
returned here - it is the integer value of the mark (or of point) that is
returned.

And in the former case, the grammar is incorrect - it should be "and" not "or".
It's `min' applied to a plurality (2) of things, not just to one of them.  So
"value" needs to be "values" and "or" needs to be "and".  Hence:

"Return the smaller of the integer values of point and mark."

But that could conceivably be misread to suggest that either can have multiple
values...

This is what I recommend (very close to what I mentioned in the beginning):

"Return the integer value of point or mark, whichever is smaller."