Re: should query-replace-regexp-eval be in the manual?

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hi, Drew!

On Fri, Apr 13, 2007 at 09:41:53AM -0700, Drew Adams wrote:
> `query-replace-regexp-eval' is not mentioned in either the Emacs manual
> or the Emacs-Lisp manual. Should it be? Should it be
> compared/contrasted with using `\,' with `query-replace-regexp'?

Hmm.  I didn't know about this command (which supports the notion it
should be documented).  It was actually introduced in Emacs 21.  More
precisely, it was written by Christopher J. Madsen and committed on
1999-08-03.

Is the command useful?  I get the feeling it was written for some fairly
specific task, but somehow hasn't gelled.  Then again, a short while ago
I went through my personal log files replacing things like "2005/6/2"
with "2005-06-02" and I did this with a rather tortuous sequence of
C-M-%'s.  Maybe q-r-r-eval would have done the job more efficiently.

Thinking about it, I believe it _should_ be documented in the Emacs
manual, and that description should contain an example.

Drew, do you actually use this command?  If so, how?

> (Please, no knee-jerk followups saying that the manuals need not
> mention every command. I'm not suggesting such a need. I'm asking about
> this command - just asking.)

:-)

-- 
Alan.