bug#23937: 25.0.95; Search functions doc fixes/improvements

[Stephen Berman]

On Mon, 11 Jul 2016 18:20:51 +0300 Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:

>> From: Stephen Berman <stephen.berman@gmx.net>
>> Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2016 20:21:34 +0200
>> 
>> In GNU Emacs 25.0.95.9 (x86_64-suse-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.14.15)
>>  of 2016-07-10 built on rosalinde
>> Repository revision: 4069b716ad3422f2d7f595699220c39297427387
>> 
>> Bug#10507 was about missing documentation for the fact that the fourth
>> argument of search-{for,back}ward can be a negative number, reversing
>> the search direction.  This lack was fixed in commit acc28cb, but that
>> commit didn't correspondingly augment the doc of the other search
>> functions (word-search-*, re-search-*, posix-search-*), which have the
>> same behavior.
>
> (But no one has documented what happens if COUNT is zero... ;-)

In all seriousness, I actually considered adding that, but then thought
it's not really needed, since COUNT means do the search that many times,
so doing it zero times means nothing happens, which is exactly the
case.  (But we could add it, see below.)

>> The patch below does this.  In addition, the
>> documentation in the Lisp reference uses the word "repeat" instead of
>> "count" for that argument, and says the search is repeated N times,
>> where N is the argument's value; but strictly speaking, it's repeated
>> N-1 times.  It may be clear what's intended, but there's no need for the
>> manual to differ from (and be strictly less accurate than) the doc
>> strings on this point, so the patch changes the manual accordingly.
>> Finally, the patch also adds the information about the nil value of the
>> bound/limit argument to those doc strings/manual entries where it's
>> missing.  In short the patch makes the doc of all these functions more
>> uniform.
>
> Thanks.  I have some minor comments.
>
>> +If @var{count} is a positive number @var{n}, the search is done
>> +@var{n} times; each repetition starts at the end of the previous
>                        ^^^^^^^^^^
> With the change in the name of the argument, there's no more
> "repetitions".  Suggest to use "successive search" instead.

To my understanding, with COUNT > 1 all searches but the initial one are
repetitions, but it's fine with me to use "successive search".

>> +If @var{count} is a positive number @var{n}, the search is done
>> +@var{n} times; each repetition starts at the end of the previous
>                        ^^^^^^^^^^
> Likewise.
>
>> +The match found must not extend before that position.  A value of nil is
>> +  equivalent to (point-min).
>
> I find references to point-min and point-max in doc strings not the
> best style.  I think saying "the search is unlimited" or "defaults to
> the beginning of the buffer's accessible region" is more
> user-friendly.
>
> Btw, since this is search backwards, the "extend" part might be
> confusing; perhaps it is better to say "match must not begin before
> that position" instead?

Sure, both of these are fine with me.

>> @@ -2247,14 +2252,15 @@ DEFUN ("posix-search-backward", 
>> Fposix_search_backward, Sposix_search_backward,
>>         "sPosix search backward: ",
>>         doc: /* Search backward from point for match for regular expression 
>> REGEXP.
>>  Find the longest match in accord with Posix regular expression rules.
>> -Set point to the beginning of the match, and return point.
>> -The match found is the one starting last in the buffer
>> -and yet ending before the origin of the search.
>> +Set point to the beginning of the occurrence found, and return point.
>
> The 2nd and 3rd lines you removed seem to provide valuable information
> which is now gone, no?

I removed them because I thought they were (i) partly redundant: the
first words of the doc string, "Search backward from point", already
imply that the match ends before that position, since otherwise it
wouldn't be a search backward; and (ii) partly inaccurate: saying the
match found is the last one in the buffer before the starting point is
only true when COUNT is 1 (or nil).  A sufficient and more accurate
statement would in effect describe the COUNT argument, which the doc
string already does.  So I don't see the need for those two lines.  But
we could add the meaning of nil to the description of COUNT for
explicitness, and 0 for completeness (or not, if you think it's not
worth it):

   Optional fourth argument COUNT, if a positive number, means to search
    for COUNT successive occurrences.  If COUNT is negative, search
    forward, instead of backward, for -COUNT occurrences.  A value of
    nil means the same as 1, and 0 means do nothing.

> With those taken care of, LGTM, thanks.

Thanks for reviewing.  I'll wait for your final decision on the last
point, and then I assume it's ok to push the changes to emacs-25?

Steve Berman