Re: doc strings of variable-at-point and find-variable

[martin rudalics]

> These doc strings don't describe the position of the variable well:
> The variable-at-point doc string mentions nothing about using a
> variable near point - it says only "around point", which suggests that
> only a variable at point is used.  The find-variable doc string
> mentions using a variable near point, but this suggests that the
> nearest variable will be used, which is not always the case.
>
> The actual variable used seems to be the one before or at point, even
> if there is a closer one after point. I didn't check all cases, but
> perhaps it would be more correct to say at or before point for both
> doc strings.  Perhaps something also needs to be said about the
> possible distance before point.

The "at-point" fuzziness is hard to explain.  It's simple when `point'
is immediately before, after, or within the print name of a variable.
Otherwise, "at-point" refers to the last sexp in the buffer preceding
`point'.  Finding that may depend on whether `point' is in a string or
comment, the (buffer-local?) values of `parse-sexp-ignore-comments',
`parse-sexp-lookup-properties', `syntax-table' text properties, ...