From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
To: Howard Melman <hmelman@gmail.com>
Cc: 55527@debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#55527: 28.1; Clearer abbrev docstrings
Date: Thu, 19 May 2022 21:52:27 +0300 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <83bkvtcq38.fsf@gnu.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <D7770BA8-552C-41C6-AE35-20F809516341@gmail.com> (message from Howard Melman on Thu, 19 May 2022 14:32:44 -0400)
> From: Howard Melman <hmelman@gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, 19 May 2022 14:32:44 -0400
>
> Define global (all modes) abbrev for last word(s) before point.
> Define last word before point as a global (mode-independent) abbrev.
>
> and I find I have to think hard to resolve which is which. I
> think these would be clearer:
>
> Use word(s) before point as the expansion of a new global abbrev.
"Use" is ambiguous, because it may be interpreted as "expand it now".
"Define" is better. So I would suggest
Define a global abbrev that expands into word(s) preceding point.
> Use word before point as the abbreviation of a new global abbrev.
"Abbreviation of a new abbrev" is confusing. I don't actually
understand what's wrong with the original one, viz.:
Define last word before point as a global (mode-independent) abbrev.
> Define word before point as a global abbrev, prompt for its expansion.
>
> FWIW I do wish the documentation used "abbreviation" when it refers to
> the abbrev so that "abbrev" could refer to the pair of "abbreviation"
> and "expansion" or to the feature name.
That'd be counter-productive, because it will cause these doc strings
become longer and more confusing.
> Global abbrev for "foo":
> Global expansion for "foo":
>
> The latter is fine but the first confuses me (particularly
> when defining one word expansions), I think these would be
> clearer as:
>
> Global abbrev for expansion "foo":
> Global expansion of abbrev "foo":
Is that really more clear? I would say
Global abbrev that expands into "foo":
Expansion for a global abbrev "foo":
But I'm not sure we can make these prompts so much longer than the
original ones without overflowing the minibuffer into a second line,
which is a disadvantage.
> (defun define-abbrev (table name expansion &optional hook &rest props)
> "Define an abbrev in TABLE named NAME, to expand to EXPANSION and call HOOK.
>
> to this:
>
> (defun define-abbrev (table abbrev expansion &optional hook &rest props)
> "Define in TABLE an ABBREV and its EXPANSION and optionally a HOOK.
This loses the explanation of what is HOOK, and is also a very awkward
sentence that I think will be hard on non-native English speakers.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2022-05-19 18:52 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 18+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2022-05-19 18:32 bug#55527: 28.1; Clearer abbrev docstrings Howard Melman
2022-05-19 18:52 ` Eli Zaretskii [this message]
2022-05-19 19:30 ` Howard Melman
2022-05-19 19:46 ` Eli Zaretskii
2022-05-19 20:38 ` Howard Melman
2022-05-20 5:48 ` Eli Zaretskii
2022-05-20 13:35 ` Howard Melman
2022-05-20 15:59 ` Eli Zaretskii
2022-05-20 17:03 ` Howard Melman
2022-05-21 7:23 ` Eli Zaretskii
2022-05-21 13:41 ` Howard Melman
2022-05-21 14:09 ` Eli Zaretskii
2022-05-21 17:49 ` Howard Melman
2022-05-21 18:06 ` Eli Zaretskii
2022-05-21 18:26 ` Howard Melman
2022-05-21 18:46 ` Eli Zaretskii
2022-05-20 7:41 ` Juri Linkov
2022-05-20 13:12 ` Howard Melman
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
List information: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=83bkvtcq38.fsf@gnu.org \
--to=eliz@gnu.org \
--cc=55527@debbugs.gnu.org \
--cc=hmelman@gmail.com \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
Code repositories for project(s) associated with this public inbox
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for read-only IMAP folder(s) and NNTP newsgroup(s).