describe-mode output for empty-string minor-mode modeline indicators

[John Paul Wallington]

In GNU Emacs 21.1.50.4 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GNU/LessTif Version 1.2 Release 
0.93.12)
 of 2002-01-01 on bundalo
configured using `configure --with-x-toolkit=motif'
Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: C
  locale-coding-system: nil
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Please describe exactly what actions triggered the bug
and the precise symptoms of the bug:


When displaying information about minor-modes, the command
describe-mode prints the mode-line indicator for each minor-mode if
there is one, like so:
  
"Eldoc minor mode (indicator ElDoc):"

If an indicator is the empty string, then describe-mode
prints:

"Eldoc minor mode (indicator):"

Perhaps
"Eldoc minor mode (no indicator):"
would be better?

Here is a simple-minded patch to describe-mode:

*** lisp/help.el.orig   Mon Jan  7 07:27:00 2002
--- lisp/help.el        Mon Jan  7 07:34:46 2002
***************
*** 532,537 ****
--- 532,539 ----
                            (boundp indicator)
                            (not (eq indicator (symbol-value indicator))))
                  (setq indicator (symbol-value indicator)))
+               (if (string-equal indicator "")
+                   (setq indicator nil))
                (princ "\n\f\n")
                (princ (format "%s minor mode (%s):\n"
                               pretty-minor-mode


-- 
John Paul Wallington