Subject: bug#70702: closed (Re: bug#70702: Useless error message from the reader: Error: invalid-read-syntax ("#"))

From: [email-masked] (GNU bug Tracking System)
Date: Mon, 06 May 2024 20:20:01 +0000

Your bug report

#70702: Useless error message from the reader: Error: invalid-read-syntax ("#")

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].

-- 
70702: https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=70702
GNU Bug Tracking System
Contact [email-masked] with problems

Subject: Re: bug#70702: Useless error message from the reader: Error: invalid-read-syntax ("#")
From: Alan Mackenzie <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 6 May 2024 20:19:21 +0000
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

The bug has been fixed in master.

On Wed, May 01, 2024 at 19:31:02 +0000, GNU bug Tracking System wrote:
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> -- 
> 70702: https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=70702
> GNU Bug Tracking System
> Contact [email-masked] with problems

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).

Subject: Useless error message from the reader: Error: invalid-read-syntax ("#")
From: Alan Mackenzie <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 19:29:54 +0000
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

Hello, Emacs.

Recently, in my development version, I got the "error message":

    Error: invalid-read-syntax ("#")

while attempting to build Emacs.

This is an utterly useless error message:
(i) "#" is valid syntax in a .el or .elc file.  Only a subsequent
  character causes the invalidity.  The precise character sequence is not
  disclosed.
(ii) The source of the invalid character sequence, a file or buffer or
  string is kept secret.
(iii) The offset of the erring position in the file/buffer/string is not
  disclosed.  Neither is a line number or column number.
(iv) No context is given (e.g. the 32 characters before and after the
  "#").

This unhelpful message is a bug: a correct message would give at least
some of the information listed above.

The appearance, which surely must be false, is that the person
implementing the error messages was not attempting to help those affected
by them.

Come on, Emacs - we can do better than this.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).