Re: Patch: perform autoloading when docs is missing from autoload object

[Arthur Miller]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> Arthur Miller <arthur.miller@live.com> writes:
>
>> I wanted to later switch to just fetch the docs instead of performing
>> load. Loading docs can be done without evaluating the code. It might be a
>> better solution anyway?
>
> If that's possible, that would be preferable, but as you say:
>
>> By the way, I had thoughts about loading the library vs just docs. I reason,
>> that, if I look at some symbol docs via describe-* functions, I am
>> probably already using that library/package, or am about to use it, so it
>> probably is going to be loaded anyway. At least in many cases, not always of
>> course.
>
> It is quite likely that you want to use the library if you've looked up
> the symbol in a *Help* buffer, so why not, indeed, just load it at that
> point?  If loading the library also helps with some other things --
> highlighting `package-symbol's correctly in the doc string, for
> instance.
>
> So I think I'd be fine with adding the proposed functionality.  If there
> are people that don't want this, we can add a user option to switch it off.

It is already an opt-in option.

(defcustom help-enable-symbol-autoload nil
  "Perform autoload when documentation is not present in autoload object."
  :type 'boolean
  :group 'help
  :version "28.1")
  
There is a defcustom variable that controls this, and it is nil by default, so
this is off unless user actively put it on.

It would be nice if it is in. Thank you.