Subject: RE: bug#8119: 24.0.50; `mark-active' needs its doc string

From: "Drew Adams" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:10:33 -0800

> From: Glenn Morris Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 2:39 PM
> retitle 8119 buggy 2011-02-14 trunk build on MS Windows
> stop
> 
> > Emacs 24:
> > "Not documented as a variable."
> 
> s/Emacs 24/current trunk/

OK.

> Anyway, buggy build.

OK.

> Current trunk on GNU/Linux:
>     mark-active is a variable defined in `C source code'.
>     Its value is nil
>     Local in buffer *scratch*; global value is nil
>       Automatically becomes buffer-local when set in any fashion.
>     Documentation:
>     Non-nil means the mark and region are currently active in 
>     this buffer.

(You've written "current trunk" in two contradictory ways, BTW.
Which is it - not documented or documented?)

If this is a buggy build, then file a bug report saying to that effect.  Or add
that statement to this bug's description (body): "Anyway...".  No problem.

But please do not change the title of this bug.  Even if you are convinced that
the _cause_ of the symptom I reported is a buggy build, the bug-report title
should not be changed.

If you want, create a new bug with your "buggy" title, to refer to a problem
that you discovered.  And then, if you are convinced that this bug is related to
the other, merge the two.  That way, if the merge is mistaken the two can be
dissociated.  And their descriptions/titles anyway remain distinct.

There is no reason to retitle a bug report.  The original title is the OP's way
of describing the problem.  It need not be a description of the underlying cause
of the problem.  It need not even be accurate/correct.  There is never any
reason to simply wipe out that original description, replacing it with one you
think is closer to the mark.

This is not the way bugs are handled - in any bug tracking system I've seen.