bug#20924: 25.0.50; (elisp) `Sticky Properties`

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

> > The first sentence is misleading:
> >
> >   Self-inserting characters normally take on the same properties
> >   as the preceding character.
> >
> > Is it about the characters themselves or about self-insertion of
> > those characters?
> 
> The latter, because of the plural tense.  "Self-inserting
> characters" is a shorthand for "characters bound to a command
> that just inserts the character which invoked it".
> 
> > The rest of the node says, for example, that `insert' inserts
> > without inheritance.  Doesn't that mean that if you pass a string of
> > self-inserting chars to `insert' then they will not inherit from
> > the char before the insertion?
> 
> No.  According to my clarification above, there's no such thing as
> "a string of self-inserting characters", only "a string of characters".
> Any character can be inserted by an explicit call to 'insert'.
> 
> I guess the confusion here is between 'insert' the name of a
> primitive and "insert" as part of "self-inserting", where "insert"
> is used in its everyday meaning.  I see no other unclear issues here.
> 
> > It would be clearer to just say that: they inherit when they are
> > self-inserted.
> 
> We cannot "self-insert" a character, so saying that would be a
> mistake.

Isn't that the distinction you are trying to make?  When a char is
inserted by way of being "bound to a command that just inserts the
character which invoked it", then it "normally take[s] on the same
properties as the preceding character"?

Anyway, I submit that the text is unclear.  The specific behavior
(e.g., what function `insert' does) described in the rest of the
node is clear.  The first paragraph is not clear.  Please try to
find some other way to say what you think the message of the first
paragraph is.  Under what conditions does a character "normally
take on the same properties as the preceding character"?  Thx.