search-forward doesn't move point. Why?

[pcolsen]

I've been trying to use (search-forward "string") to find "string".  The 
documentation says that if "string" is found the function will return the 
character position of the first character of the string and leave the pointer 
after the last character.  

That's not happening.  The function is returning the character position but not 
moving the pointer; the pointer stays where it started.

I'm seeing this behavior both in Aquamacs and Emacs.  I've been testing this 
with both programs using "eval-defun" on functions such as (search-forward 
"string").  The character position is returned, but the cursor is unmoved.

Can anyone tell me why this is happening and how to fix it?

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I'm using

GNU Emacs 23.3.1 (x86_64-apple-darwin11.2.0), shell version.

GNU Emacs 23.3.50.1 (i386-apple-darwin9.8.0, NS apple-appkit-949.54),  Aquamacs 
Distribution 2.4