Re: autoload and auto-compression-mode

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 22:14:44 -0600 (CST)
> From: Luc Teirlinck <address@hidden>
> CC: address@hidden, address@hidden,
>         address@hidden
> 
> Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> 
>    First, what happened to indentation here?  The extra spaces are funny.
> 
> I just kept the indentation style that was already present (it is also
> used in several other docstrings).

I think it should be removed.

>    And finally, I'm sorry to say that this description still leaves me
>    confused.  Why do we need 2 lists, and why one of them is a literal
>    list, while the other is returned by a function?
> 
> The answers are in the discussions earlier in this thread.

But I was looking at this through the eyes of a user who never
participated in those discussions.

> There are
> three lists, one of Elisp suffixes, one of file representation
> suffixes and one which is a computed combination of both.  The last
> one needs to be computed on the fly, because any of the two other
> lists could have changed in the meantime, and hence needs to be
> returned by a function.  The two others do not need to be computed on
> the fly and hence can be stored in a variable.

The doc strings should explain at least part of this.

> Anyway, it is not the task of a docstring to explain and motivate
> design decisions.

I wasn't looking for motivation of the design decision, I was looking
for explanation how these lists and functions work together.  I think
some minimal understanding of this is necessary to be able to
customize and use those lists and functions.