Re: What's the purpose of things like `default-truncate-lines'?

[David Kastrup]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

>     Is it then appropriate to remove the reference to
>     default-truncate-lines from the Elisp manual, as
>     default-truncate-lines does not appear to have usefulness of its own?
>
> I don't see a reason to remove its docs.  Some code might use it.

But for understanding existing code, the DOC string should be enough.
Things that are documented in the Elisp manual are usually intended to
be _written_ in new code, not merely understood in old code.  I don't
think we should encourage writing code that is harder to understand,
namely requires looking up both default-truncate-lines as well as
truncate-lines for understanding.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum