Re: allout mode patch for a few small bugs and cleanup of mode docstring

["Ken Manheimer" <ken.manheimer@gmail.com>]

On 11/29/06, Kim F. Storm <storm@cua.dk> wrote:

> I see that you changed several occurrences of ... ( ... ) ... to
> .. \( ... \) ... in the doc string.
>
> You only need to quote a ( in the rare case that it occurs in
> the first column of a line, and you never need to quote a ).
>
> Appendix D.6 of the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual says:
>
>    * If a line in a documentation string begins with an
>      open-parenthesis, write a backslash before the open-parenthesis,
>      like this:
>
>           The argument FOO can be either a number
>           \(a buffer position) or a string (a file name).
>
>      This prevents the open-parenthesis from being treated as the start
>      of a defun (*note Defuns: (emacs)Defuns.).

thanks for the tip - i've wondered about a few nuances concerning
escaping parens, and i might as well ask, while the issue is raised.

first, does it hurt to escape open parens excessively?  i ask because
i deliberately tend to quote all leading opens, so i can flow
docstring paragraphs without worry about surprises.  it would not be a
hardship to be more discriminating, but still wonder if there's a
drawback beyond the increased mystery (onions-in-the-varnish wise) of
unnecessary escaping.

i'm pretty haphazard about escaping the close parens, but decided to
shoot for consistency in this last edit - apparently in the wrong
direction. (i don't see any prohibition against escaping the close
parens, but i suppose it's more onions-in-the-varnish noise.) it would
be nice if there were a way to get paren matching for an escaped open
paren, and i gather there currently is no provision for that.  is that
right?

just curious, mostly.
-- 
ken
ken.manheimer@gmail.com
http://myriadicity.net