make-local-variable

Hi folks ! We just had in the german gnu-groups a discussion about the differences between XEmacs and the FSF version, which came down to discussing some slight incompatibilities in Emacs Lisp(s). Somebody (Bodo Moeller 3moeller(a)informatik.uni-hamburg.de) came up with the following, which looks to me like a bug: In Gnu Emacs: (boundp 'foo) nil (make-local-variable 'foo) foo (boundp 'foo) nil In XEmacs (21.1.6): (boundp 'foo) nil (make-local-variable 'foo) foo (boundp 'foo) t This is the (relevant part of the) documentation string: (The buffer-local value of VARIABLE starts out as the same value VARIABLE previously had. If VARIABLE was void, it remains void.) See also `make-variable-buffer-local'. If the variable is already arranged to become local when set, this function causes a local value to exist for this buffer, just as setting the variable would do. What is the intention of "void" and "remains void" ? Does void mean "(not (boundp VARIABLE))" ? If so, then it is a bug (or at least a documentation bug). IMHO, making a variable local should not make it bound. If my O is wrong, could somebody please explain it to me why ? Holger -- --- http://www.coling.uni-freiburg.de/~schauer/ --- "Ja, Zuckerwattefernsehen macht Gehirnkaries. Nein, Vollkornfunk will keiner gucken." -- Friedrich Kueppersbusch, taz vom 29.9.98