bug#72757: No symbols in etc/NEWS

bug#72757: No symbols in etc/NEWS

[Juri Linkov]

0. emacs -Q
1. Open etc/NEWS
2. Move point to a symbol enclosed in single quotes
3. Type 'C-h o'
4. No default is proposed, so need to type the symbol manually
   instead of typing RET

bug#72757: No symbols in etc/NEWS

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Juri Linkov <juri@linkov.net>
> Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2024 09:22:34 +0300
> 
> 0. emacs -Q
> 1. Open etc/NEWS
> 2. Move point to a symbol enclosed in single quotes
> 3. Type 'C-h o'
> 4. No default is proposed, so need to type the symbol manually
>    instead of typing RET

That's because thing-at-point--beginning-of-symbol allows the
apostrophe as part of the symbol's name, and so "C-h o" thinks the
symbol at point is 'foo-bar', with the quotes.

I don't see any better solution than providing a NEWS-specific version
of thing-at-point--beginning-of-symbol.

bug#72757: No symbols in etc/NEWS

[Visuwesh]

[வியாழன் ஆகஸ்ட் 22, 2024] Eli Zaretskii wrote:

>> From: Juri Linkov <juri@linkov.net>
>> Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2024 09:22:34 +0300
>> 
>> 0. emacs -Q
>> 1. Open etc/NEWS
>> 2. Move point to a symbol enclosed in single quotes
>> 3. Type 'C-h o'
>> 4. No default is proposed, so need to type the symbol manually
>>    instead of typing RET

[ I can only seem to reproduce if the symbol is in the heading.  If the
  symbol enclosed in quotes is in the "body" text, then the DEFAULT
  argument is picked up by C-h o as expected...  ]

> That's because thing-at-point--beginning-of-symbol allows the
> apostrophe as part of the symbol's name, and so "C-h o" thinks the
> symbol at point is 'foo-bar', with the quotes.
>
> I don't see any better solution than providing a NEWS-specific version
> of thing-at-point--beginning-of-symbol.

Would it not be simpler to change the syntax-table of
emacs-news-(view-)mode?

I did

    M-: (modify-syntax-entry ?' "\"") RET

in the NEWS buffer and C-h o seems to work everywhere.  I am not sure if
we want ' to be "string quote" or punctuation like " already is, or
something else.

bug#72757: No symbols in etc/NEWS

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Visuwesh <visuweshm@gmail.com>
> Cc: Juri Linkov <juri@linkov.net>,  72757@debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2024 20:21:23 +0530
> 
> [வியாழன் ஆகஸ்ட் 22, 2024] Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> 
> >> From: Juri Linkov <juri@linkov.net>
> >> Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2024 09:22:34 +0300
> >> 
> >> 0. emacs -Q
> >> 1. Open etc/NEWS
> >> 2. Move point to a symbol enclosed in single quotes
> >> 3. Type 'C-h o'
> >> 4. No default is proposed, so need to type the symbol manually
> >>    instead of typing RET
> 
> [ I can only seem to reproduce if the symbol is in the heading.  If the
>   symbol enclosed in quotes is in the "body" text, then the DEFAULT
>   argument is picked up by C-h o as expected...  ]
> 
> > That's because thing-at-point--beginning-of-symbol allows the
> > apostrophe as part of the symbol's name, and so "C-h o" thinks the
> > symbol at point is 'foo-bar', with the quotes.
> >
> > I don't see any better solution than providing a NEWS-specific version
> > of thing-at-point--beginning-of-symbol.
> 
> Would it not be simpler to change the syntax-table of
> emacs-news-(view-)mode?
> 
> I did
> 
>     M-: (modify-syntax-entry ?' "\"") RET
> 
> in the NEWS buffer and C-h o seems to work everywhere.  I am not sure if
> we want ' to be "string quote" or punctuation like " already is, or
> something else.

That's one way of "providing a NEWS-specific version of
thing-at-point--beginning-of-symbol", yes.  Thanks.

bug#72757: No symbols in etc/NEWS

[Juri Linkov]

>>> 1. Open etc/NEWS
>>> 2. Move point to a symbol enclosed in single quotes
>>> 3. Type 'C-h o'
>>> 4. No default is proposed, so need to type the symbol manually
>>>    instead of typing RET
>
> [ I can only seem to reproduce if the symbol is in the heading.  If the
>   symbol enclosed in quotes is in the "body" text, then the DEFAULT
>   argument is picked up by C-h o as expected...  ]

Interesting, I didn't notice this difference.

>> That's because thing-at-point--beginning-of-symbol allows the
>> apostrophe as part of the symbol's name, and so "C-h o" thinks the
>> symbol at point is 'foo-bar', with the quotes.
>>
>> I don't see any better solution than providing a NEWS-specific version
>> of thing-at-point--beginning-of-symbol.
>
> Would it not be simpler to change the syntax-table of
> emacs-news-(view-)mode?
>
> I did
>
>     M-: (modify-syntax-entry ?' "\"") RET
>
> in the NEWS buffer and C-h o seems to work everywhere.  I am not sure if
> we want ' to be "string quote" or punctuation like " already is, or
> something else.

Thanks, this looks like the right thing to do.

bug#72757: No symbols in etc/NEWS

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Juri Linkov <juri@linkov.net>
> Cc: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>,  72757@debbugs.gnu.org
> Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2024 09:27:17 +0300
> 
> >     M-: (modify-syntax-entry ?' "\"") RET
> >
> > in the NEWS buffer and C-h o seems to work everywhere.  I am not sure if
> > we want ' to be "string quote" or punctuation like " already is, or
> > something else.
> 
> Thanks, this looks like the right thing to do.

I made that change, but please note that it is not enough to show each
symbol in NEWS as the default when you type "C-h o".  This is because
"C-h o" tests symbol-at-point for being bound, either as a function or
a variable or a face etc., and if the corresponding library is not yet
loaded, those tests will fail.

If this is deemed okay, we can close this bug.

bug#72757: No symbols in etc/NEWS

[Stefan Kangas]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

> I made that change, but please note that it is not enough to show each
> symbol in NEWS as the default when you type "C-h o".  This is because
> "C-h o" tests symbol-at-point for being bound, either as a function or
> a variable or a face etc., and if the corresponding library is not yet
> loaded, those tests will fail.
>
> If this is deemed okay, we can close this bug.

I think that's okay, indeed.

bug#72757: No symbols in etc/NEWS

[Juri Linkov]

close 72757 30.0.60
thanks

>> >     M-: (modify-syntax-entry ?' "\"") RET
>> >
>> > in the NEWS buffer and C-h o seems to work everywhere.  I am not sure if
>> > we want ' to be "string quote" or punctuation like " already is, or
>> > something else.
>> 
>> Thanks, this looks like the right thing to do.
>
> I made that change, but please note that it is not enough to show each
> symbol in NEWS as the default when you type "C-h o".  This is because
> "C-h o" tests symbol-at-point for being bound, either as a function or
> a variable or a face etc., and if the corresponding library is not yet
> loaded, those tests will fail.

The problem was that 'describe-symbol' uses 'function-called-at-point',
but not anything to get a variable at point.  But now this is fixed,
and when a library is not loaded this is not a problem.

> If this is deemed okay, we can close this bug.

So I'm closing this bug.  The fix helped me to check
documentation while rereading some parts of etc/NEWS,
so small doc fixes are pushed now as well.