bug#38248: closed (help-follow-symbol silent when no symbol was found)

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Your message dated Fri, 22 Nov 2019 21:13:03 +0100
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and subject line Re: bug#38248: help-follow-symbol silent when no symbol was 
found
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #38248,
regarding help-follow-symbol silent when no symbol was found
to be marked as done.

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38248: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=38248
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--- Begin Message --- Subject: help-follow-symbol silent when no symbol was found Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2019 20:40:33 +0100

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
Description: Binary data

--- End Message ---

--- Begin Message --- Subject: Re: bug#38248: help-follow-symbol silent when no symbol was found Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2019 21:13:03 +0100

Committed as b7d4c5d1d1b55fea8382663f18263e2000678be5

--- End Message ---