From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Quoting t and nil in docstrings (was: [Emacs-diffs] master b952385: Revert "Fix typo in add-hook doc string") Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2019 08:12:04 -0500 Message-ID: References: <20190207085733.4723.6852@vcs0.savannah.gnu.org> <20190207085734.B17CF2047A@vcs0.savannah.gnu.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Info: blaine.gmane.org; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:195.159.176.226"; logging-data="88167"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@blaine.gmane.org" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/27.0.50 (gnu/linux) Cc: Aurelien Aptel To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Feb 07 14:12:45 2019 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:256) (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1grjTv-000MnO-M4 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 07 Feb 2019 14:12:43 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:39817 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1grjTu-0002Oo-G6 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 07 Feb 2019 08:12:42 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([209.51.188.92]:46975) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1grjTM-0002OW-FM for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 07 Feb 2019 08:12:09 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1grjTL-0005Ip-U4 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 07 Feb 2019 08:12:08 -0500 Original-Received: from pruche.dit.umontreal.ca ([132.204.246.22]:49629) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1grjTL-0005Hn-AJ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 07 Feb 2019 08:12:07 -0500 Original-Received: from pastel.home (lechon.iro.umontreal.ca [132.204.27.242]) by pruche.dit.umontreal.ca (8.14.7/8.14.1) with ESMTP id x17DC4of008105; Thu, 7 Feb 2019 08:12:05 -0500 Original-Received: by pastel.home (Postfix, from userid 20848) id BE24D6A1C0; Thu, 7 Feb 2019 08:12:04 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: <20190207085734.B17CF2047A@vcs0.savannah.gnu.org> (=?windows-1252?Q?=22Aur=E9lien?= Aptel"'s message of "Thu, 7 Feb 2019 03:57:34 -0500 (EST)") X-NAI-Spam-Flag: NO X-NAI-Spam-Threshold: 5 X-NAI-Spam-Score: 0 X-NAI-Spam-Rules: 2 Rules triggered EDT_SA_DN_PASS=0, RV6478=0 X-NAI-Spam-Version: 2.3.0.9418 : core <6478> : inlines <7011> : streams <1812346> : uri <2792382> X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 132.204.246.22 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:233081 Archived-At: > Revert "Fix typo in add-hook doc string" [...] > -This makes the hook buffer-local, and it makes it a member of the > +This makes the hook buffer-local, and it makes t a member of the This is as good an opportunity as any to question our long-standing convention that the symbols `nil` and `t` are treated specially in docstrings in the sense that we don't surround them with the customary `...'. FWIW, I don't find this exception to be beneficial here, nor in cases like: `foo' means ... `bar' means ... nil means ... t means ... Or when a sentence starts with "nil" (where the lack of capital letter looks like a typo). I think we could at least change our convention to say that nil and t don't have to be quoted rather than to say that they should not be quoted. Stefan