On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 9:58 AM, Glenn Morris
<rgm@gnu.org> wrote:
Tim Cross wrote:
> According to the documentation for scroll-bar-mode, the way to
> set/change scroll-bar settings from within elisp code is to use the
> set-scroll-bar-mode function. However, this function is only defined
> when run under graphic capable environments, such as X, but not in other
> environments such as the Linux console.
>
> This means that if you don't want your elisp or .emacs to raise an
> error, you also need to wrap calls to this function inside something
> like (when display-graphic-p ...). This is not required for other
> display related functions that depend on an environment requiring
> support for graphics i.e. tool-bar-mode.
It's not clear to me whether you mean --without-x builds or --with-x
builds started with -nw (or both), but in either case:
In a with-x build:
emacs -Q -nw
C-h f tool-bar-mode
tool-bar-mode is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `tool-bar.el'.
C-h f set-scroll-bar-mode
set-scroll-bar-mode is a compiled Lisp function in `scroll-bar.el'.
(tool-bar-mode 1) ; no error
(set-scroll-bar-mode 'left) ; no error
In a without-x build, neither tool-bar-mode nor set-scroll-bar-mode is
defined.
Thus, I see no inconsistency here and don't understand your request.
OK, I just tried to re-create the error I was getting and now it isn't occurring. I have updated emacs since logging the report, but cannot see anything obvious in the change log that would explain the difference, so not sure. For the record, here is what I did originally and which does not repeat the problem now.
1. Built emacs under X with the GTK libs (emacs from bzr 24.0.50).
2. Login under the Linux console and run emacs --debug-init
Originally, I got a backtrace with a void function error for set-scroll-bar-mode. Fixed this by putting the call inside a when block which tested for a window-syste of X. However, noticed that this was not an issue with tool-bar-mode. I could place a direct top-level call to tool-bar-mode in my .emacs without needing to wrap it in a test. This was the original inconsistency I observed. i.e. tool-bar-mode was defined but set-scroll-bar-mode was not when running an emacs built with X under a Linux console (not an xterm or X console).
C-h f tool-bar-mode returns docs on that function as would be expected.
C-h f set-scroll-bar-mode fails saying the function is not defined.
After removing the when block from my .emacs and just having a top level call to set-scrolll-bar-mode and restarting emacs just now, I no longer get the error and backtrace. C-h f returns info on both functions.
I cannot see anything in the change log which would explain why it was not working and now is, so I guess I must have screwed up somewhere. Sorry for the noise.
The main reason for the report was I figured we should have consistency - either *all* graphics display related functions are always defined i.e. as tool-bar-mode appears to be or *all* of them are defined only for environments where they maie sense, such as X, but above all, avoid situations where some appear to be defined and some do not.
Personally, I think they should all be defined regardless of the environment, even if in many environments, they are just function stubs that don't actually do anything. This avoids having to remember to put such code inside tests and to somehow know which such functions are defined in which environments. For the envrionments I've tested, this does not appear to be the case for tool-bar-mode and set-scroll-bar-mode, so all appears to be fine for at least these two cases.
thanks,
Tim