One responsibility of @var{from-fn} is to make sure that the beginning
of the file no longer matches @var{regexp}. Otherwise it is likely to
-get called again.
+get called again. Also, @var{from-fn} must not involve buffers or
+files other than the one being decoded, otherwise the internal buffer
+used for formatting might be overwritten.
@item to-fn
A shell command or function to encode data in this format---that is, to
positions. All this takes place without modifying the buffer.
@end itemize
+@var{to-fn} must not involve buffers or files other than the one being
+encoded, otherwise the internal buffer used for formatting might be
+overwritten.
+
@item modify
A flag, @code{t} if the encoding function modifies the buffer, and
@code{nil} if it works by returning a list of annotations.