Package: emacs
Severity: minor
Tags: patch
Currently, help-follow and help-follow-mouse signal an error if there's nothing to follow. However, help-follow-symbol does not, which means that C-c C-c in the help buffer when over an arbitrary non-symbol does nothing and says nothing.
That's not just inconsistent, but a bit disconcerting, as sometimes following a symbol can be slow. In my build, it takes a second or more to show the symbol documentation, so when there's no symbol I stand waiting for something to happen for a couple of seconds.
The following patch fixes that. The only reason against I can think of is when `help-follow-symbol' is called from elisp, because it will now signal an error. However, at least in the Emacs sources help-follow-symbol is never called from elisp, just as a keybinding or menu entry.
0001-lisp-help-mode.el-help-follow-symbol-Signal-no-symbo.patch