Support viewing help for unbound symbols #299
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An unbound symbol can still have symbol properties. Without this, it is painful to look for eg. where a button type or a face is defined. (helpful--kind-name): Return "unbound symbol" for symbols that are neither bound as variables or functions. Also added this case to its unit test. (helpful--summary): Add support for unbound symbols. They are rendered like this: "epg-error is an unbound symbol." (helpful--bound-p): Return non-nil for a lambda instead of erroring out. (helpful-unbound-symbol): New command. Functionally the same as helpful-variable when called from Lisp, but offers only unbound symbols with properties for completion. (helpful-symbol): Call helpful-unbound-symbol for unbound symbols. (helpful--update): Add support for unbound symbols. (helpful--format-references-to-unbound): New function. This returns the text for the references section. Because unbound symbols do not have symbol-file, this unfortunately has to resort to searching every loaded file with elisp-refs. (CHANGELOG.md): Add entry for this change.
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slotThe
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NOTE: This is Wilfred#299 An unbound symbol can still have symbol properties. Without this, it is painful to look for eg. where a button type or a face is defined. (helpful--kind-name): Return "unbound symbol" for symbols that are neither bound as variables or functions. Also added this case to its unit test. (helpful--summary): Add support for unbound symbols. They are rendered like this: "epg-error is an unbound symbol." (helpful--bound-p): Return non-nil for a lambda instead of erroring out. (helpful-unbound-symbol): New command. Functionally the same as helpful-variable when called from Lisp, but offers only unbound symbols with properties for completion. (helpful-symbol): Call helpful-unbound-symbol for unbound symbols. (helpful--update): Add support for unbound symbols. (helpful--format-references-to-unbound): New function. This returns the text for the references section. Because unbound symbols do not have symbol-file, this unfortunately has to resort to searching every loaded file with elisp-refs. (CHANGELOG.md): Add entry for this change.
slotThe
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Jan 5, 2026
NOTE: This is Wilfred#299 An unbound symbol can still have symbol properties. Without this, it is painful to look for eg. where a button type or a face is defined. (helpful--kind-name): Return "unbound symbol" for symbols that are neither bound as variables or functions. Also added this case to its unit test. (helpful--summary): Add support for unbound symbols. They are rendered like this: "epg-error is an unbound symbol." (helpful--bound-p): Return non-nil for a lambda instead of erroring out. (helpful-unbound-symbol): New command. Functionally the same as helpful-variable when called from Lisp, but offers only unbound symbols with properties for completion. (helpful-symbol): Call helpful-unbound-symbol for unbound symbols. (helpful--update): Add support for unbound symbols. (helpful--format-references-to-unbound): New function. This returns the text for the references section. Because unbound symbols do not have symbol-file, this unfortunately has to resort to searching every loaded file with elisp-refs. (CHANGELOG.md): Add entry for this change.
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An unbound symbol can still have symbol properties. Without this, it is painful to eg. look for where a button type or a face is defined.
The way I merged the display of unbound symbols into the rest of helpful-update is... quite inelegant, but avoiding that would require rearchitecting helpful-update to delegate to different "views" instead, so I've opted to not do that for now.
helpful--kind-nameReturn "unbound symbol" for symbols that are neither bound as variables or functions.
Also added this case to its unit test.
helpful--summaryAdd support for unbound symbols. They are rendered like this: "epg-error is an unbound symbol."
helpful--bound-pReturn non-nil for a lambda instead of erroring out.
helpful-unbound-symbolNew command. Functionally the same as helpful-variable when called from Lisp, but offers only unbound symbols with properties for completion.
helpful-symbolCall helpful-unbound-symbol for unbound symbols.
helpful--updateAdd support for unbound symbols.
helpful--format-references-to-unboundNew function. This returns the text for the references section. Because unbound symbols do not have symbol-file, this unfortunately has to resort to searching every loaded file with elisp-refs.
CHANGELOG.mdAdd entry for this change.