From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Luc Teirlinck Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Invisible colons in Emacs Info. Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2003 19:47:30 -0500 (CDT) Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: <200307070047.h670lUi09770@raven.dms.auburn.edu> References: <200307062356.h66Nu8V05403@f7.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1057538903 12830 80.91.224.249 (7 Jul 2003 00:48:23 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 00:48:23 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Mon Jul 07 02:48:22 2003 Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 19ZKB4-0003Km-00 for ; Mon, 07 Jul 2003 02:48:22 +0200 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 19ZKKg-0003rw-00 for ; Mon, 07 Jul 2003 02:58:18 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.20) id 19ZKB9-0000rM-D6 for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Sun, 06 Jul 2003 20:48:27 -0400 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.20) id 19ZKAm-0000Js-Jv for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 06 Jul 2003 20:48:04 -0400 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.20) id 19ZKAc-0008GX-HD for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 06 Jul 2003 20:47:55 -0400 Original-Received: from manatee.dms.auburn.edu ([131.204.53.104]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.20) id 19ZKAb-0008B2-6t for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 06 Jul 2003 20:47:53 -0400 Original-Received: from raven.dms.auburn.edu (raven.dms.auburn.edu [131.204.53.29]) h670loeQ014437; Sun, 6 Jul 2003 19:47:51 -0500 (CDT) Original-Received: (from teirllm@localhost) by raven.dms.auburn.edu (8.11.6+Sun/8.11.6) id h670lUi09770; Sun, 6 Jul 2003 19:47:30 -0500 (CDT) X-Authentication-Warning: raven.dms.auburn.edu: teirllm set sender to teirllm@dms.auburn.edu using -f Original-To: karl@freefriends.org In-reply-to: <200307062356.h66Nu8V05403@f7.net> (karl@freefriends.org) Original-cc: monnier+gnu/emacs@cs.yale.edu X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1b5 Precedence: list List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: List-Unsubscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:15442 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:15442 Karl Berry wrote: still recognize some of those old entries (as long as such tweaking does not impact valid cases). Of course that's fine and desirable. I guess that if there are no other colons or periods in the menu entry after the first :, it can be unambiguously parsed. (Not counting the :: form, of course.) But if there are following colons or periods, then it seems the space is needed. Which means that Stefan's recent changes do not reduce the importance of making people aware that the rules have changed. The example I gave shows that it is easy for colons to appear in descriptions. So it is important that Stefan's partial and unreliable support for the old syntax does not give people the misleading impression that the old syntax is still reliably supported. Any form of incomplete support always carries the danger of misleading people into assuming full support. I guess that we could have makeinfo print warnings in case of subtopic names that contain a colon or end in a colon without following whitespace, pointing out that: 1. Subtopic names containing colons, while supported by Emacs Info, are not currently supported by the stand-alone Info. 2. Only a colon followed by a space (or tab), or two colons, still reliably terminate a subtopic name. Other subtopic names are deprecated and may or may not still be recognized. So * Mtools:(mtools). Mtools: utilities to access DOS disks in Unix. would consider: Mtools:(mtools). Mtools to be the subtopic name and: utilities to access DOS disks in Unix to be the node name, but makeinfo would warn the user of that fact and also of the fact that this syntax is not currently recognized by the stand-alone Info. On the other hand: * Mtools: (mtools). Mtools: utilities to access DOS disks in Unix. would consider Mtools to be the subtopic name without warnings of any kind (of course). I believe that Emacs' current echo area behavior for `m' in this case should be changed, as I pointed out before. Sincerely, Luc.