Subject: bug#6521: closed (Re: bug#6521: 23.2; Elisp Manual Ommission)

From: [email-masked] (GNU bug Tracking System)
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 22:09:02 +0000

Your bug report

#6521: 23.2; Elisp Manual Ommission 

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].

-- 
6521: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=6521
GNU Bug Tracking System
Contact [email-masked] with problems

Subject: Re: bug#6521: 23.2; Elisp Manual Ommission
From: Stefan Monnier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2010 00:03:11 +0200
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

[ Can't remember responding yet. ]
>> Could you send it along, so we could see what it looks like (to better
>> assess whether it means we have a serious problem, or if it's just
>> bad luck).
> The code which failed to compile was BBDB as bundled with Debian testing. Do
> you want me to send the error message that was generated? (note that the code
> still compiles with emacs23).

AFAIK, this problem has been fixed a little while back.

        Stefan

Subject: 23.2; Elisp Manual Ommission
From: Tim Cross <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:02:52 +1000
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

It appears the section from the emacs manual that use to describe the
old pre emacs 19.29 behavior with backquotes has been removed. In
previous versions of the manual, it use to describe what this old
behavior was and why it is no longer required. However, it now only
describes the use of backquote as it should now be used.

I think it would be a good idea to put the description of the old
section back into the manual. The reason is that 

        1. The compiler, when warning of code that still uses the old
        backquote format references this node, but there is no reference
        to the old behavior in the node anymore. This makes things less
        clear to new users that perhaps it should be.

        2. It may not be obvious to more recent users exactly what the
        old behavior was, making it more difficult to identify the old
        style and understand how it use to be formatted in order to
        update the code to use the correct modern style.

        3. This is likely to become a bigger issue now that emacs 24 is
        changing to assume a backquote with a space following it is
        modern style. I just encountered code which failed to compile
        due to this. When wanting to clarify my understanding, I found
        nothing relevant in the manual. 

I was referencing version 3 of the elisp manual (for emacs version
24.0.50).

regards,

Tim

-- 
Tim Cross
[email-masked]

There are two types of people in IT - those who do not manage what they 
understand and those who do not understand what they manage.