bug#4402: apropos-documentation and platform-specific docs

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org>
> Cc: 4402@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com
> Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:05:32 -0400
> 
> Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> 
> > DOC is an architecture-independent file, so it must include the doc
> > strings of all symbols.
> 
> My question is, why must DOC be architecture independent?
> There are certianly drawbacks to this, so what's the benefit?

The main benefit is that it can be installed only once for several
different architectures, like all the Lisp files.

Another benefit is that the doc strings are available on all
platforms, no matter if the doc string is read from a Lisp file or
from DOC.  This is handy when, e.g., one writes an emulation for a
platform-specific function on another platform.  It also provides a
common base for discussing interfaces and doc strings.