Re: confusing info in C-u C-x =

[Juri Linkov]

BTW, there is an old bug related to read-only text in the *Help*
buffer produced by `describe-char'.

On any character type `C-u C-x = C-h C-h' and it signals an error

  Text is read-only: "Attempt to change text outside editable field"

while it tries to display the help-for-help screen.

I recall there was a discussion about changing `erase-buffer'
to ignore read-only text.  If it is not the time to change this now,
then I propose the following fix:

Index: lisp/help-macro.el
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/emacs/emacs/lisp/help-macro.el,v
retrieving revision 1.34
diff -c -r1.34 help-macro.el
*** lisp/help-macro.el  6 Aug 2005 22:13:43 -0000       1.34
--- lisp/help-macro.el  11 Dec 2005 00:54:56 -0000
***************
*** 139,146 ****
                                (setq new-frame (window-frame (selected-window))
                                      config nil))
                           (setq buffer-read-only nil)
!                          (erase-buffer)
!                          (insert help-screen)
                           (help-mode)
                           (goto-char (point-min))
                           (while (or (memq char (append help-event-list
--- 139,147 ----
                                (setq new-frame (window-frame (selected-window))
                                      config nil))
                           (setq buffer-read-only nil)
!                          (let ((inhibit-read-only t))
!                            (erase-buffer)
!                            (insert help-screen))
                           (help-mode)
                           (goto-char (point-min))
                           (while (or (memq char (append help-event-list

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/