Re: gnus-user-format-function-* in non-user code

[Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc>]

On Thu, May 19 2011, Ted Zlatanov wrote:

> On Thu, 19 May 2011 Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc> wrote: 
>
> RS> On Wed, May 18 2011, Ted Zlatanov wrote:
>
> RS> Why do you name these function gnus-registry-*user*-format-function if
> RS> they are predefined rather than *user*-defined?
>
> Because they are supposed to be defaliased to
> gnus-user-format-function-X so the naming echoed that.
>
> What name would you use?

Maybe `gnus-registry-format-function-char' and
`gnus-registry-format-function-word'?

> RS> I know, we already have such (IMHO) bad examples[1], but we should try
> RS> to eliminate those instead of adding new ones.
>
> Why is this bad?  Does it confuse people or cause technical problems?

Although it is not spelled out in the manual[1], I think that the user
defined functions (and format specifiers) should be reserved for the
user just like the keys[2] that are reserved for users.  In this way
the user can be sure that Gnus won't overwrite his bindings[3].

[1]
,----[ (info "(gnus)Summary Buffer Lines") ]
| `u'
|      User defined specifier.  The next character in the format string
|      should be a letter.  Gnus will call the function
|      `gnus-user-format-function-X', where X is the letter following
|      `%u'.  [...]
`----

[2] (info "(emacs)Keymaps")

[3] "bad example": (info "(gnus)The Gnus Diary Library")

Bye, Reiner.
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