From: Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 1996 06:03:24 +0000 (+0000)
Subject: Explain eliminating compiler warnings about undefined variables.
X-Git-Tag: emacs-19.34~1832
X-Git-Url: http://git.eshelyaron.com/gitweb/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=6a994023c4e73dfeb72881d915e2ed17396b2792;p=emacs.git

Explain eliminating compiler warnings about undefined variables.
---

diff --git a/lispref/tips.texi b/lispref/tips.texi
index 3d46466832b..c66b71033c2 100644
--- a/lispref/tips.texi
+++ b/lispref/tips.texi
@@ -245,6 +245,17 @@ Lisp, so please don't use it in your programs.  (Emacs uses such names
 only for program-generated buffers.)  The users will find Emacs more
 coherent if all libraries use the same conventions.
 
+@item
+Try to avoid compiler warnings about undefined free variables, by adding
+@cdode{defvar} definitions for these variables.
+
+If you bind a variable in one function, and use it or set it in another
+function, the compiler warns about the latter function unless the
+variable has a definition.  But often these variables have short names,
+and it is not clean for Lisp packages to define such variables names.
+Therefore, you should rename the variable to start with the name prefix
+used for the other functions and variables in your package.
+
 @item
 Indent each function with @kbd{C-M-q} (@code{indent-sexp}) using the
 default indentation parameters.