* lisp/thingatpt.el (bounds-of-thing-at-point): Return nil rather than

bounds for the empty string.

Fixes: debbugs:8667

2 files changed, 11 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/lisp/ChangeLog b/lisp/ChangeLog
index 3fa18d2480b..b4807f7d279 100644
--- a/lisp/ChangeLog
+++ b/lisp/ChangeLog
@@ -1,9 +1,14 @@
+2011-05-13  Stefan Monnier  <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>
+
+        * thingatpt.el (bounds-of-thing-at-point): Return nil rather than
+        bounds for the empty string (bug#8667).
+
 2011-05-13  Glenn Morris  <rgm@gnu.org>
 
         * mail/feedmail.el (feedmail-buffer-to-sendmail): Require sendmail.
 
         * mail/sendmail.el (sendmail-program): Try executable-find first.
-        (sendmail-send-it): sendmail-program cannot be unbound.
+        (sendmail-send-it): `sendmail-program' cannot be unbound.
 
         * calendar/appt.el (appt-make-list): Simplify.
         (appt-time-msg-list): Doc fix.
diff --git a/lisp/thingatpt.el b/lisp/thingatpt.el
index a56c3e4d501..a2aeb2e6d67 100644
--- a/lisp/thingatpt.el
+++ b/lisp/thingatpt.el
@@ -89,18 +89,19 @@ of the textual entity that was found."
              (or (get thing 'beginning-op)
                  (lambda () (forward-thing thing -1))))
             (let ((beg (point)))
-              (if (not (and beg (> beg orig)))
+              (if (<= beg orig)
                   ;; If that brings us all the way back to ORIG,
                   ;; it worked.  But END may not be the real end.
                   ;; So find the real end that corresponds to BEG.
+                  ;; FIXME: in which cases can `real-end' differ from `end'?
                   (let ((real-end
                          (progn
                            (funcall
                             (or (get thing 'end-op)
                                 (lambda () (forward-thing thing 1))))
                            (point))))
-                    (if (and beg real-end (<= beg orig) (<= orig real-end))
-                        (cons beg real-end)))
+                    (when (and (<= orig real-end) (< beg real-end))
+                      (cons beg real-end)))
                 (goto-char orig)
                 ;; Try a second time, moving backward first and then forward,
                 ;; so that we can find a thing that ends at ORIG.
@@ -117,7 +118,7 @@ of the textual entity that was found."
                           (or (get thing 'beginning-op)
                               (lambda () (forward-thing thing -1))))
                          (point))))
-                  (if (and real-beg end (<= real-beg orig) (<= orig end))
+                  (if (and (<= real-beg orig) (<= orig end) (< real-beg end))
                       (cons real-beg end))))))
         (error nil)))))