Re: obarray

[Barry Margolin]

In article <mailman.9279.1387082898.10748.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>,
 Michael Heerdegen <michael_heerdegen@web.de> wrote:

> All that need to know is that obarray is a thing that holds all
> essential symbols (variables), and that it is a valid COLLECTION
> argument for `completing-read'.

It's also important to know that not everything in it is a variable. 
Symbols also name functions, and they're also often used as literal 
objects by themselves (e.g. when you see them quoted).  And many symbols 
that are variables are just local variables internal to functions (not 
to be confused with buffer-local variables); these shouldn't show up in 
describe-variable.

That's why the completing-read collection that describe-variable uses 
checks whether the symbol is bound or has a variable-documentation 
property.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
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