Re: elisp question

[Thien-Thi Nguyen]

"N. Raghavendra" <raghu@mri.ernet.in> writes:

> There seems to be some incompatibility between the index files created
> from the same fortune file by strfile(8) and `fcookie-create-index'.
> In particular, if I create an index file with `fcookie-create-index'
> and apply fortune(1) to it, I sometimes get the first cookie in the
> file, or no cookie at all.  OTOH, the same index file works well with
> `fcookie'.
>
> Similarly, if I create an index file with strfile(8) and evaluate
> `fcookie' on the corresponding cookie file, a buffer containing the
> entire cookie file is displayed.

the index file format and/or the programs that read/write it have
mutated slightly over the years.  tracking the variations is not worth
it for the elisp manual where the priority, as i see it, of conciseness
and clarity in the example would be defeated by the lengthenend code
required for completeness.

however, leaving such weirdness to fester outside the manual[1] is
rather uncool.  at the moment i have no cycles for debugging this, but
if someone digs into the details and sends me a patch that includes not
only a fix to the code but an explanation of the format drift, i would
be glad to install it and give credit.  on the other hand, if the patch
reveals an actual bug in my understanding (reverse-engineering) of the
index file format, i suppose i would install it and give credit
(anyway), but only begrudgingly (don't let that dissuade anyone ;-).

thi


[1] http://www.glug.org/people/ttn/software/personal-elisp/
    (look for fcookie.el in dist-lisp-index.html)