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RE: doc strings that are too long


From: Drew Adams
Subject: RE: doc strings that are too long
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 20:45:38 -0800

BTW - A similar problem to the problem of (fn...) occurs in functions like
`describe-function' when they display the function signature in the second
line.

For example, `C-h f completing-read' displays a well-formed doc string (< 80
columns), but the first two lines are this:

completing-read is a compiled Lisp function.
(completing-read PROMPT TABLE &optional PREDICATE REQUIRE-MATCH
INITIAL-INPUT HIST DEF INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD)

That second line is not filled (though it appears that way in my email). It
is 108 columns wide.

This kind of thing looks only slightly untidy in vanilla Emacs - you just
see a fringe mark indicating wrapping. However, with code that automatically
resizes a frame to its sole window, the frame is much wider than it should
be. The rest of the *Help* display is very neat, and if this line were
filled properly, the frame would be just the right size.

Please consider filling such lines as an enhancement for post-release.

 - Drew

------------------------

    That produces an OK result, but the filling would need to be
    done by each function that displays the doc string.

    Since that could include user-defined functions, it would be
    better if the filling were done before adding the doc string as
    the function, variable, etc. property.

    I'm not familiar with how (fn...) works, however. Is it
    feasible to do this ahead of time, and store the resulting
    (filled) doc string?

     - Drew

        > In other cases, such as quail-define-package, the (fn ...) at
        the end is
        > just too wide (232 columns wide! in the case of
        quail-define-package)

        In those cases how about just filling the arglist ?  That seems to
        give okay results.





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