Re: read-face-name doc string incorrect

[Nick Roberts]

 > The doc string for read-face-name says this:
 > 
 >  Read a face, defaulting to the face or faces on the char after point.
 >  If it has a `read-face-name' property, that overrides the `face' property.
 >  prompt describes what you will do with the face (don't end in a space).
 >  string-describing-default describes what default you will use
 >  if this function returns nil.
 >  If multiple is non-nil, return a list of faces (possibly only one).
 >  Otherwise, return a single face.
 > 
 > The part about "if this function returns nil" is incorrect. The
 > function never returns nil - it returns a non-empty list of faces or a
 > single face. This should say something to the effect of "if the user
 > just hits RET".

It does return nil e.g with customize-face when the user hits RET.  It
wouldn't make sense to say "if the user just hits RET" for read-face-name
because it's not an interactive function.  I agree that it's not clear from
the doc string what read-face-name returns.

The phrase "If it has a `read-face-name' property," appears as a link to
the function read-face-name so perhaps it could be rewritten as:

If it has the property `read-face-name',...

and help-xref-symbol-regexp modified by replacing "\\(symbol\\|program\\)\\|"
with "\\(symbol\\|program\\|property\\)\\|".

 > The prompt and default-string are not clear, in any case, especially
 > the part about describing what you will do with the face and not
 > ending in a space. The doc string must give an example, or no one will
 > understand what kind of prompt string and default-string arguments to
 > use.

I think the elisp manual is the right place for examples but I don't think
read-face-name is described there.  But then it's not used much either.

-- 
Nick                                           http://www.inet.net.nz/~nickrob