RE: Quoting t and nil in docstrings (was: [Emacs-diffs] master b952385: Revert "Fix typo in add-hook doc string")

[Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>]

> >     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.

+1

The (new) convention could be discretionary.
There are likely some contexts where it is not
necessary (but it wouldn't hurt).