bug#50760: 26.3; Add `symbol' to the Emacs manul glossary

bug#50760: 26.3; Add `symbol' to the Emacs manul glossary

[Drew Adams]

"Symbol" is used in many places in the Emacs manual, but it's not
defined in the Glossary.  Please consider adding its definition there.

The notion of an Emacs symbol is not obvious from the name.

(emacs) `Symbol Completion' is one node that talks about "symbol names",
without actually saying what's meant.  It's probably clear enough, from
context, but a more definite definition in the Glossary would help.

In GNU Emacs 26.3 (build 1, x86_64-w64-mingw32)
 of 2019-08-29
Repository revision: 96dd0196c28bc36779584e47fffcca433c9309cd
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 10.0.19042
Configured using:
 `configure --without-dbus --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32
 --without-compress-install 'CFLAGS=-O2 -static -g3''

bug#50760: 26.3; Add `symbol' to the Emacs manul glossary

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

> "Symbol" is used in many places in the Emacs manual, but it's not
> defined in the Glossary.  Please consider adding its definition there.
>
> The notion of an Emacs symbol is not obvious from the name.
>
> (emacs) `Symbol Completion' is one node that talks about "symbol names",
> without actually saying what's meant.  It's probably clear enough, from
> context, but a more definite definition in the Glossary would help.

Makes sense.  I've now added an entry in the glossary in Emacs 28 (that
points to the "Symbol Type" node in the lispref manual.)

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#50760: [External] : Re: bug#50760: 26.3; Add `symbol' to the Emacs manul glossary

[Drew Adams]

> > "Symbol" is used in many places in the Emacs manual, but it's not
> > defined in the Glossary.  Please consider adding its definition
> there.
> >
> > The notion of an Emacs symbol is not obvious from the name.
> >
> > (emacs) `Symbol Completion' is one node that talks about "symbol
> names",
> > without actually saying what's meant.  It's probably clear enough,
> from
> > context, but a more definite definition in the Glossary would help.
> 
> Makes sense.  I've now added an entry in the glossary in Emacs 28 (that
> points to the "Symbol Type" node in the lispref manual.)

Thanks, but I don't think that's sufficient.

There are (at least) two important meanings of "symbol" in Emacs:

1. The usual Lisp meaning, which is meaningful only in Lisp.

2. The Elisp meaning of characters with symbol-constituent syntax.  And perhaps names composed of such chars, possibly combined with chars with other syntax, e.g., typically word-constituent.

For example, in programming languages (not only Elisp), we have commands such as `forward-symbol'.  They move over or otherwise manipulate names composed of symbol-constituent chars and sometimes other kinds of chars.

Emacs users deserve to know about these quite different meanings, I think. Each such meaning is important to using Emacs.

bug#50760: [External] : Re: bug#50760: 26.3; Add `symbol' to the Emacs manul glossary

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>
> Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2021 22:14:11 +0000
> Cc: "50760@debbugs.gnu.org" <50760@debbugs.gnu.org>
> 
> There are (at least) two important meanings of "symbol" in Emacs:
> 
> 1. The usual Lisp meaning, which is meaningful only in Lisp.
> 
> 2. The Elisp meaning of characters with symbol-constituent syntax.  And perhaps names composed of such chars, possibly combined with chars with other syntax, e.g., typically word-constituent.
> 
> For example, in programming languages (not only Elisp), we have commands such as `forward-symbol'.  They move over or otherwise manipulate names composed of symbol-constituent chars and sometimes other kinds of chars.
> 
> Emacs users deserve to know about these quite different meanings, I think. Each such meaning is important to using Emacs.

The meaning of "symbol" for searching is explained in "Symbol Search".

bug#50760: [External] : Re: bug#50760: 26.3; Add `symbol' to the Emacs manul glossary

[Drew Adams]

> > There are (at least) two important meanings of "symbol" in Emacs:
> >
> > 1. The usual Lisp meaning, which is meaningful only in Lisp.
> >
> > 2. The Elisp meaning of characters with symbol-constituent syntax.
> And perhaps names composed of such chars, possibly combined with chars
> with other syntax, e.g., typically word-constituent.
> >
> > For example, in programming languages (not only Elisp), we have
> commands such as `forward-symbol'.  They move over or otherwise
> manipulate names composed of symbol-constituent chars and sometimes
> other kinds of chars.
> >
> > Emacs users deserve to know about these quite different meanings, I
> think. Each such meaning is important to using Emacs.
> 
> The meaning of "symbol" for searching is explained in "Symbol Search".

Great.  Add that meaning to the glossary entry, please.
(And it's also movement commands, not just search.)

A user seeing the doc string for `C-h S'
(`info-lookup-symbol') can well wonder what "symbol"
means.

My observation comes from someone having questioned
possibly using the word "symbol" in a help menu item
(for `info-lookup-symbol').  The term isn't obvious,
especially for new users.