GNU bug report logs - #4979
23.1.50; describe-text-properties produces *Help* buffer without back/forward buttons

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Message #5 received at submit <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa <at> Freenet.DE>
To: emacs-pretest-bug <at> gnu.org
Subject: 23.1.50; describe-text-properties produces *Help* buffer without back/forward buttons
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:23:31 +0100

Hello!

When executing describe-text-properties on some character a *Help*  
buffer is created or updated with some text content, for example:

	Text content at position 234:
	
	
	There is an overlay here:
	 From 234 to 246
	  font-lock-face       comint-highlight-prompt
	
	
	There are text properties here:
	  field                output
	  fontified            t
	  front-sticky         (field inhibit-line-move-field-capture)
	  inhibit-line-move-field-capture t
	  rear-nonsticky       t

Similarly C-u C-x = produces a *Help* buffer without [back] and/or  
[forward] buttons. No matter how often I repeat these two commands,  
no button is created. But when I run describe-variable or describe- 
function and a [back] button is created by them in *Help* buffer,  
then describe-text-properties (or C-u C-x =) kind of inherit this  
feature and create *Help* buffers with a [back] button.

Shouldn't all functions which overwrite the previous contents of  
*Help* buffer also insert that [back] button?


In GNU Emacs 23.1.50.1 (powerpc-apple-darwin8.11.0, GTK+ Version 2.18.2)
 of 2009-11-18 on Latsche.local
Windowing system distributor `The XFree86 Project, Inc', version  
11.0.40400000
configured using `configure  '--without-sound' '--without-pop' '-- 
with-dbus' '--with-libotf' '--with-xpm' '--with-jpeg' '--with-tiff'  
'--with-gif' '--with-png' '--x-libraries=/opt/local/lib' '--x- 
includes=/opt/local/include' '--enable-locallisppath=/Library/ 
Application Support/Emacs/calendar23:/Library/Application Support/ 
Emacs' 'PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/opt/local/lib/pkgconfig:/opt/local/share/ 
pkgconfig:/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/lib/pkgconfig' 'CPPFLAGS=-no- 
cpp-precomp' 'CFLAGS=-ggdb3 -gfull -mtraceback=full -Wno-pointer-sign  
-H -pipe -fPIC -mcpu=7450 -mtune=7450 -mtune=G4 -fast -mpim-altivec - 
ftree-vectorize -foptimize-register-move -freorder-blocks -fthread- 
jumps -fpeephole -fno-crossjumping' 'LDFLAGS=-dead_strip - 
multiply_defined suppress''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: de_DE.UTF-8
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: de_DE.UTF-8
  value of $XMODIFIERS: nil
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix
  default enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Shell

Minor modes in effect:
  shell-dirtrack-mode: t
  tooltip-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  tool-bar-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  global-auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t


Features:
(shadow mail-extr message ecomplete rfc822 mml mml-sec password-cache
mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mailcap mail-parse rfc2231 rfc2047 rfc2045
qp ietf-drums mailabbrev nnheader gnus-util netrc time-date mm-util
mail-prsvr gmm-utils mailheader canlock sha1 hex-util hashcash
mail-utils emacsbug sendmail regexp-opt pp wid-edit shell comint ring
descr-text help-mode easymenu view tooltip ediff-hook vc-hooks
lisp-float-type mwheel x-win x-dnd font-setting tool-bar dnd fontset
image fringe lisp-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select
scroll-bar mldrag mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core
frame cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai
tai-viet lao korean japanese hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european
ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help
simple abbrev loaddefs button minibuffer faces cus-face text-properties
overlay md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget
hashtable-print-readable backquote make-network-process dbusbind
font-render-setting system-font-setting gtk x-toolkit x multi-tty emacs)



--
Greetings

  Pete

Give a man a fish, and you've fed him for a day. Teach him to fish,  
and you've depleted the lake.

Message #10 received at 4979 <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> IRO.UMontreal.CA>
To: Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa <at> Freenet.DE>
Cc: 4979 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#4979: 23.1.50; describe-text-properties produces *Help* buffer without back/forward buttons
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:24:53 -0500

> Shouldn't all functions which overwrite the previous contents of *Help*
> buffer also insert that [back] button?

Yes.  I've installed a change which should fix it for
describe-text-properties and describe-char.  Please confirm that it
solves your problems,


        Stefan

Message #15 received at 4979 <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa <at> Freenet.DE>
To: Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> IRO.UMontreal.CA>
Cc: 4979 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#4979: 23.1.50; describe-text-properties produces *Help* buffer without back/forward buttons
Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:35:43 +0100

Am 24.11.2009 um 23:24 schrieb Stefan Monnier:

>> Shouldn't all functions which overwrite the previous contents of  
>> *Help*
>> buffer also insert that [back] button?
>
> Yes.  I've installed a change which should fix it for
> describe-text-properties and describe-char.  Please confirm that it
> solves your problems,
>

Yes, I can confirm that describe-text-properties now works as  
describe-function or describe-variable.

But – there seem to be other describe-<whatever> functions which do  
not work like these. Some of these functions produce a [back] key  
only when they are repeated (describe-character-set for example,  
describe-categories, describe-face, describe-fontset) and not when  
they overwrite the contents of the *Help* buffer. Some never seem to  
create this navigation element:

	describe-bindings-internal
	describe-buffer-case-table
	describe-coding-system
	describe-current-coding-system
	describe-current-display-table
	describe-font

The functions describe-minor-mode-from-indicator and describe-minor- 
mode do not show any possible completions...


--
Greetings

  Pete      <\
             _\     O  _
            |o \  _\\_/-\='
_____________(_)|-(_)  (_)___________________________________

Message #18 received at 4979 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
To: Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa <at> Freenet.DE>
Cc: Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> IRO.UMontreal.CA>, 4979 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#4979: 23.1.50; describe-text-properties produces *Help*
 buffer without back/forward buttons
Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2021 20:48:04 +0200

Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa <at> Freenet.DE> writes:

>>> Shouldn't all functions which overwrite the previous contents of
>>> *Help*
>>> buffer also insert that [back] button?
>>
>> Yes.  I've installed a change which should fix it for
>> describe-text-properties and describe-char.  Please confirm that it
>> solves your problems,
>
> Yes, I can confirm that describe-text-properties now works as
> describe-function or describe-variable.
>
> But – there seem to be other describe-<whatever> functions which do
> not work like these. Some of these functions produce a [back] key only
> when they are repeated (describe-character-set for example,
> describe-categories, describe-face, describe-fontset) and not when
> they overwrite the contents of the *Help* buffer. Some never seem to
> create this navigation element:
>
> 	describe-bindings-internal
> 	describe-buffer-case-table
> 	describe-coding-system
> 	describe-current-coding-system
> 	describe-current-display-table
> 	describe-font

I tried the commands here in Emacs 28, and they all seemed to produce a
[back] button for me, so I'm going to go ahead and guess that this has
been fixed in the decade since it was reported, and I'm closing this bug
report.  

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

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