Re: describe-char

[Stefan Monnier]

>> AFAICT it's the exact same situation as in all other cases, except that you
>> use (buffer-string).

> All other cases call `help-setup-xref' with the same function name and its
> arguments just before calling `(with-output-to-temp-buffer (help-buffer)
> ...)'  and replacing old contents of the help buffer with the new
> contents.  But this is not possible when the new contents should be stored
> in the help xref stack.

Isn't that what I wrote?

>> Instead of using (help-insert-string (buffer-string)) I'd use
>> (describe-char pos buf), which admittedly forces you to add a `buf'
>> optional argument.

> This is not reliable way to restore the old output of `describe-char'
> since the original buffer might be killed or the character at the old
> position might be deleted,

The same holds for most/all other uses of help-setup-xref.


        Stefan