From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Paul Eggert Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Upcoming loss of usability of Emacs source files and Emacs. Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2015 09:25:41 -0700 Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department Message-ID: <55898885.8010603@cs.ucla.edu> References: <20150615142237.GA3517@acm.fritz.box> <87y4jkhqh5.fsf@uwakimon.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <557F3C22.4060909@cs.ucla.edu> <5580D356.4050708@cs.ucla.edu> <87si9qonxb.fsf@gnu.org> <55826DCC.9040404@cs.ucla.edu> <55850208.3080605@cs.ucla.edu> <5585C279.3030607@cs.ucla.edu> <55871590.8010406@cs.ucla.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1435076779 12889 80.91.229.3 (23 Jun 2015 16:26:19 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2015 16:26:19 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: rms@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Jun 23 18:26:10 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Z7R1V-0002KP-C6 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 23 Jun 2015 18:26:09 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:46297 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Z7R1U-00058j-Ja for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 23 Jun 2015 12:26:08 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:51738) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Z7R18-00058P-DR for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 23 Jun 2015 12:25:47 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Z7R15-0007sO-O0 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 23 Jun 2015 12:25:46 -0400 Original-Received: from zimbra.cs.ucla.edu ([131.179.128.68]:52290) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Z7R15-0007s0-Iv; Tue, 23 Jun 2015 12:25:43 -0400 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by zimbra.cs.ucla.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4F0FE1601EA; Tue, 23 Jun 2015 09:25:42 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: from zimbra.cs.ucla.edu ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (zimbra.cs.ucla.edu [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10032) with ESMTP id DLGZNyzQ4lLA; Tue, 23 Jun 2015 09:25:41 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by zimbra.cs.ucla.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9EFA4160821; Tue, 23 Jun 2015 09:25:41 -0700 (PDT) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at zimbra.cs.ucla.edu Original-Received: from zimbra.cs.ucla.edu ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (zimbra.cs.ucla.edu [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10026) with ESMTP id q8HFKVYeBW4S; Tue, 23 Jun 2015 09:25:41 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: from [192.168.1.9] (pool-100-32-155-148.lsanca.fios.verizon.net [100.32.155.148]) by zimbra.cs.ucla.edu (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 808241601EA; Tue, 23 Jun 2015 09:25:41 -0700 (PDT) User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.7.0 In-Reply-To: X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 3.x X-Received-From: 131.179.128.68 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 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-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:187426 Archived-At: Richard Stallman wrote: > The full conventions for doc strings are definitely not > part of the rudiments. True, but quoting is pretty elementary. Most doc strings use it, I dares= ay.=20 For example, the doc strings for =E2=80=98car=E2=80=99, =E2=80=98cdr=E2=80= =99, and =E2=80=98length=E2=80=99 all use quoting.=20 These are the sorts of doc strings that new users are likely to see. I agree with you, by the way, that the improvement due to using curved qu= otes is=20 not a large one. Emacs's use of an obsolescent quoting style is merely a= =20 constant minor annoyance, and it's obviously something that we can work a= round=20 when we teach Emacs to students -- we can even give them a little history= lesson=20 as we go. It's just one minor way that Emacs appears old-fashioned. Obv= iously=20 there are other, bigger ways, but I'm working on this one primarily becau= se I=20 finally got annoyed enough with it enough to invest the time to fix it, a= nd=20 because it's a minor task that I can tackle a bit at a time.