From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Jambunathan K Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: backquote quote pair notation: What does it mean in Emacs document? Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:19:06 +0530 Message-ID: <878v8v8tsd.fsf@gmail.com> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1355831163 25962 80.91.229.3 (18 Dec 2012 11:46:03 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2012 11:46:03 +0000 (UTC) Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org To: ziqianggeoffreychen@gmail.com Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Dec 18 12:46:14 2012 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@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 1Tkvck-0004mY-I5 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 18 Dec 2012 12:46:14 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:59772 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TkvcW-0007Oq-GU for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 18 Dec 2012 06:46:00 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:33097) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TkvcP-0007OY-GA for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Dec 2012 06:45:54 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TkvcO-0000hx-A1 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Dec 2012 06:45:53 -0500 Original-Received: from mail-pa0-f50.google.com ([209.85.220.50]:58378) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TkvcN-0000hj-Sm for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 18 Dec 2012 06:45:52 -0500 Original-Received: by mail-pa0-f50.google.com with SMTP id hz10so481537pad.23 for ; Tue, 18 Dec 2012 03:45:51 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=x-received:from:to:cc:subject:references:date:in-reply-to :message-id:user-agent:mime-version:content-type; bh=zYoYGNeTnIJ3FZ88sfoYwrbfwoKF5eDUeQ1E0WzzU0I=; b=mOjGNhvBQxPVc/Z04rxPr7HqcKUWOngCDAv6nsvG3RXMSZZDcY7luAQQot/ccPo1iJ jjrkZCQ91hawNgV1jXbdnChd6qFj/BCT5I2sHeyfdKVacHe48gdK9NhXHoFKWDOoDyx9 aKACP5mr1iJSYKcEss7VFSB2y5dHQQr1DgUjrWEmLvizmslUdFB/xr2bQ93h42grY6vC 3kVa9iSwDmPlNkwTjsgTOiF/4PS24jChqfIb757jlX+V1rl3xCawvu24DYbJBCvlI8gg XZjsHm0p1ehOmwL6h2+tswT25LJ2ybpzH9nI5J5/Audnq4/z6rd9L1nqxLNrrQ/yofNL lScw== X-Received: by 10.68.239.232 with SMTP id vv8mr6046612pbc.53.1355831151017; Tue, 18 Dec 2012 03:45:51 -0800 (PST) Original-Received: from debian-6.05 ([115.184.74.123]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id us7sm1038236pbc.40.2012.12.18.03.45.48 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Tue, 18 Dec 2012 03:45:50 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: (ziqianggeoffreychen@gmail.com's message of "Tue, 18 Dec 2012 02:56:40 -0800 (PST)") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3.50 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 3.x [fuzzy] X-Received-From: 209.85.220.50 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:88192 Archived-At: > Hi all, > > When I read Emacs documents, I often see this kind of notation: > > `' > > For example, `q' in the following sentence: > > setq does not evaluate symbol; it sets the symbol that you write. We > say that this argument is automatically quoted. The `q' in setq stands > for "quoted." (source: > http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/elisp-manual-21/elisp_146.html) > > One more example, `#level' in the following sentence: > > Emacs detects such recursion and prints `#level' instead of > recursively printing an object already being printed. (source: > http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/elisp-manual-21/elisp_267.html) > > Anybody knows the philosophy? Thank you for your reply. It helps with speed-reading. As you become more experienced with Emacs, you will find yourself resorting to the info manual. Once you know that all the configuration variables, commands etc. are in quotes, you can skip over most of English and take a quick shortcut to the Point-Of-Interest and work back from there. ps: Think about why we need paragraphs, why we indent the first line of paragraph, why we need to indent list items etc. We take these as matter of course and adopt the convention handed down to us, without even thinking about how people of yore tried to bring sense out of a wall of text. > Best regards, > Geoffrey Chen > --