Re: bbdb-search is a macro

[Bob Newell]

Bob Newell <bobnewell@bobnewell.net> writes:

> I'm wondering why (in my ignorance) in bbdb-com.el,
> bbdb-search is a very long defmacro and not a defun.  Here's
> why.  On my Emacs implementations on a Termux phone and
> tablet, Emacs 28.3, the following code, which works on Emacs
> 28/29 on my Arch systems
>           
> (setq person (car (bbdb-search (bbdb-records) :mail netaddr)))
>
> throws an error saying "bbdb-search invalid-function".
> "netaddr" is of course previously defined.
>
> I think this has to do with bbdb-search being a macro and not
> a function.  Maybe?
>
> Any thoughts?  Or is this just too unclear?
>
> I'm baffled why it works on one group of systems and not
> another.

Never mind.  It's an age-old problem.  Yes, it does have to do
with bbdb-search being a macro (which it turns out is
necessary) and with byte-compiling.

A macro must be defined BEFORE byte-compiling a routine in
which the macro is called.  I was getting seeming random
results on different machines because of compilation order.

Adding

(require 'bbdb)
(require 'bbdb-com)

at the top solved this right away.

-- 
Bob Newell
Honolulu, Hawai`i

- Via GNU/Linux/Emacs/Gnus/BBDB