[emms-help] Re: [PATCH] BUG: Playing empty directory tree

[Daniel Brockman]

Oh my god, this is so funny.  Let me tell you.

I write:

> Hi Emacs rockers,
>
> If you run `emms-play-directory' and select a directory with no
> music in it, you get an obscure error.  I'm attaching a very simple
> fix.
>
> Note the removal of the final period in the error message, as per
> the documentation of `error':
>
>     ``In Emacs, the convention is that error messages start with a
>     capital letter but *do not* end with a period.  Please follow
>     this convention for the sake of consistency.''
>
> Oh, and you get another minor fix for free.
>
> Thanks for a great player --- keep up the good work!

Twenty minutes after I posted the above message, Jorgen replied thus:

Jorgen Schaefer <address@hidden> writes:

> Applied in CVS.  Thanks for spotting this!
>
> Greetings,
>         -- Jorgen

The only part Jorgen applied was, effectively, the following:

  - (error "No tracks found."))
  + (error "No tracks found"))

In other words, he just removed one final period in an error message.

With this in mind, I just re-read my above message.  Sadly, I am
forced (no pun intended) to conclude that he must think that I am
completely insane --- for which I absolutely do not blame him, since
he doesn't know me at all (and, let's face it, most people on the
Internet are pretty crazy in the head).

The following sentence reads very differently when you assume that the
removing of the period was the essential part of my so-called bug fix:

I write:

> If you run `emms-play-directory' and select a directory with no
> music in it, you get an obscure error.

I'm thinking, in particular, of the following part:

> [...] you get an _obscure error_.

(The emphasis is mine --- wait, of course it's mine.)

Accordingly, Jorgen must have thought that I considered the following
error message obscure,

  No tracks found.

and that I created a patch and wrote an e-mail message --- tagged with
both ``[PATCH]'' and the alarming ``BUG:'' --- in which I quoted the
Emacs documentation, more or less _lobbying_ for the error message to
be changed to the following:

  No tracks found

Now if we look up the word ``obscure'',

  $ dict obscure
  
       4. Not easily understood; not clear or legible; abstruse or
          incomprehensible; as, an obscure passage or inscription.
          [1913 Webster]

we see that it means ``abstruse or incomprehensible''.  My point is
that it takes a pretty fucking insane individual to even get the idea
into their head of categorically rejecting the phrase ``No tracks
found.'' as flat-out *incomprehensible*.

Call me a nutcase for researching this matter so thoroughly, but I
laughed long and hard at this whole thing.

I mean, Jorgen must think that I've been utterly brainwashed by an
underground Ultra-Orthodox Church of Emacs sect.  He must think that I
read absolutely literally into The Holy Scripture that is The Emacs
Source Code, and that I take as a personal insult any deviation from
its pure, right and just teaching.  That I keep my children indoors,
reciting for them sections out of The Holy Scripture, and have them
wear disk platters on their heads, chanting the gospel in steady
voices:  ``Join us now and share the software; you'll be free,
Hackers, you'll be free...''

At the same time, he must think that I am unable to create even the
simplest of patches --- for removing one single character --- without
accidentially removing whole words with semantic significance.


I hope, if you didn't find this incident humorous, that I at least
managed to explain myself adequately and maintain some credibility if
I ever had any. :-)


Best regards,

-- 
Daniel Brockman
address@hidden

P.S. Here's the stupid patch again, against the current CVS head.

Index: emms.el
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/emms/emms/emms.el,v
retrieving revision 1.33
diff -u -r1.33 emms.el
--- emms.el     1 Oct 2004 13:40:36 -0000      1.33
+++ emms.el     6 Oct 2004 02:15:38 -0000
@@ -480,7 +480,7 @@
   "Play the tracks in LIS."
   (let ((new (vconcat lis)))
     (when (zerop (length new))
-      (error "No tracks found" source))
+      (error "No tracks found"))
     (emms-stop)
     (emms-playlist-set-playlist new)
     (emms-playlist-set-current 0)