Suppressing errors in activities-mode-timer

[karthink]

Hi @alphapapa,

I often use Emacs with toggle-debug-on-error turned on, usually when developing a package. When the idle timer for activities fires (every five seconds by default), I get a backtrace popup for a buffer that could not be bookmarked -- eldoc for instance:

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (error "Buffer not visiting a file or directory")
  (error "Buffer not visiting a file or directory")
  (bookmark-buffer-file-name)
  (bookmark-make-record-default)
  (bookmark-make-record)
  (#f(compiled-function (buffer) "Return `activities-buffer' struct for BUFFER." #<bytecode 0x14b6006c580da493>) #<buffer *eldoc*>)
  (apply #f(compiled-function (buffer) "Return `activities-buffer' struct for BUFFER." #<bytecode 0x14b6006c580da493>) #<buffer *eldoc*> nil)
  (activity--serialize #<buffer *eldoc*>)
  (#<subr F616e6f6e796d6f75732d6c616d626461_anonymous_lambda_25> (leaf (last . t) (pixel-width . 1135) (pixel-height . 84) (total-width . 142) (total-height . 4) (normal-height . 0.07619477006311992) (normal-width . 1.0) (parameters (window-preserved-size #<buffer *eldoc*> nil nil) (no-other-window . t) (mode-line-format . none)) (buffer "*eldoc*" (selected) (hscroll . 0) (fringes 8 8 t nil) (margins nil) (scroll-bars nil 0 t nil 0 t nil) (vscroll . 0) (dedicated) (point . 1) (start . 1))))
;; stacks omitted here
  (activities--window-state #<frame karthinks:networked_oscillators.org 0x3f95c78>)
  (activities-state)
;; stacks omitted here
  (activities-save-all)
  (apply activities-save-all nil)
  (timer-event-handler [t 0 5 0 t activities-save-all nil idle 0 nil])

I understand that activities-save-all demotes errors (via condition-case-unless-debug), so this is only a problem because I've turned on debugging. But the result is that I've had to turn off activities-mode whenever I'm working on an Emacs lisp package, which sort of defeats the purpose of using it to save state.

Is it possible to make it (via a user option perhaps) so that the idle-timer function optionally uses condition-case instead of condition-case-unless-debug?

I understand that this is not an error on the part of activities.el, so feel free to close this issue if it's out of scope.

[alphapapa]

Hi Karthik,

Believe me, I have encountered this myself, usually at the most inconvenient time, so I forgot to file an issue about it.

I thought that the new activities-anti-save-predicates option would solve this:

activities.el/activities.el

Lines 277 to 285 in 6ef5924

	(defcustom activities-anti-save-predicates
	'(active-minibuffer-window activities--backtrace-visible-p)
	"Predicates which prevent an activity's state from being saved.
	Each predicate is called without arguments, with the activity to
	be saved having been activated. If any predicate returns
	non-nil, the activity's state is not saved."
	:type '(set (function-item active-minibuffer-window)
	(function-item activities--backtrace-visible-p)
	(function :tag "Other predicate")))

It calls this function:

activities.el/activities.el

Lines 734 to 740 in 6ef5924

	(defun activities--backtrace-visible-p ()
	"Return non-nil if a visible window is in `backtrace-mode'."
	(catch :found
	(walk-windows (lambda (window)
	(with-selected-window window
	(when (derived-mode-p 'backtrace-mode)
	(throw :found t)))))))

Which should prevent it from trying to save an activity if a backtrace is visible.

Since adding that, I haven't seen the problem again. Are you sure you're using the latest version?

[alphapapa]

Well, it just happened to me again, so now I understand what you meant. :) I think the fix I just pushed should solve it. Please let me know if it happens again.

[karthink]

Just updated, it appears to be fixed. Thank you!