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Documentation, documentation, documentation #emacs

๐Ÿ•๏ธŽ - 2011-07-14

Of course the builtin documentation of Emacs is aimed at proficient elisp programmers, but... sometimes it would be nice to have a couple of extra words to help the casual elisp programmer.

Example: I remember that cdr and car returns the first element of a list and the rest of the list, but I haven't memorized which is which, so I consult the online help (C-h f cdr/car):

    "car is a built-in function in `C source code'.
    (car LIST)
    Return the car of LIST.  If arg is nil, return nil."
    "cdr is a built-in function in `C source code'.
    (cdr LIST)
    Return the cdr of LIST.  If arg is nil, return nil."

Which is just maddingly unhelpful!

Would it really degrade that much from the experience of the super knowledgable Emacs gurus to throw in a "(the first element)" and "(the rest of the list)" in those documentation strings?

I had to refer to wikipedia to get it right.

Update: Ok, it wouldn't: bug report, commit.

Update 2: Ok, decision reversed.

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