GNU bug report logs - #6591
24.0.50; incorrect doc for `catch'

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Message #92 received at 6591 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: "Drew Adams" <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>
To: "'Andreas Schwab'" <schwab <at> linux-m68k.org>
Cc: 'Chong Yidong' <cyd <at> stupidchicken.com>, 6591 <at> debbugs.gnu.org,
	'Eli Zaretskii' <eliz <at> gnu.org>, 'Richard Stallman' <rms <at> gnu.org>
Subject: RE: bug#6591: 24.0.50; incorrect doc for `catch'
Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:07:13 -0700

> A parameter either matches a single argument, or multiple
> ones (if followed by an ellipsis).

The latter is a &rest parameter, as I said.

(And no one is confusing actual args with formal parameters.  The fact that you
state the contrary indicates that you have either not read or have not
understood the thread.)

And it's legitimate for Emacs to define the `...' syntax as indicating a &rest
parameter, but _that convention needs to be STATED in the doc_.

And it is not a great convention to choose, because it flies in the face of the
common use of `...' in syntax descriptions (in the rest of the universe), in
which `...' means repetition of what it follows.

Which brings us back to the start of the thread.

Emacs _can_ choose to exceptionally use `...' to mean a &rest parameter, but;

1. That unusual convention needs to be spelled out in the doc.

2. We will anyway confuse some readers who do not happen to read that
explanation of this exceptional use of `...'.  They will assume the usual
interpretation of `...' as repetition.

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