Re: glossary.texi

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

Most of your proposed changes are good, so I will comment on the
ones that have problems.


    I systematically replaced `foo.' by `foo'. and ``foo.'' by ``foo''.

Our convention, in the manual, is to put the period (or comma) inside
the quotes.  Emacs 21's manual was consistent in this regard, but we
have drifted away.  So I just corrected that.

Please, therefore, don't make changes going in the opposite direction.

      @item @acronym{ASCII} printing character
      @acronym{ASCII} printing characters include letters, digits, space, and these
    ! punctuation characters: @samp{!@@#$%^&*()_-+=|\~`@{@}[]:;"'<>,.?/}.


Please do not make that change.  The spaces enhance readability.

    ! one text being edited.  An arbitrary number of buffers may coexist in
    ! the same editing session and, when using multiple windows (q.v.@:),
    ! several of them can be visible simultaneously.

"Any number" would be better than "an arbitrary number", and please use "can"
rather than "may".

      @item File Name
      A file name is a name that refers to a file.  File names may be relative
    ! or absolute: The meaning of a relative file name depends on the default
    ! directory (q.v.@:).  An absolute file name refers to the same file
    ! regardless of the current buffer's default directory.  On GNU and Unix
    ! systems, an absolute file name starts with a slash (the root directory)
    ! or with @samp{~/} or @samp{~@var{user}/} (a home directory).  On
    ! MS-Windows/MS-DOS, an absolute file name can also start with a drive
    ! letter and a colon like @samp{@var{d}:}.

    ! Some people use the term ``pathname'' for file names, but we do not; we
    ! use the word ``path'' only in the term `search path' (q.v.@:).

I like the old text better, so please do not make this change.

    ! Functions are the basic constituents of Lisp (q.v.@:) programs.  A
    ! command (q.v.@:) is a function that may be called interactively.

Please say "can", not "may"; we are talking about what is possible,
not what someone approves or disapproves of.

      Saving a buffer means copying its text into the file that was visited
    ! (q.v.@:) by that buffer.  This is the way text in files actually gets
      changed by your Emacs editing.  @xref{Saving}.

I prefer the older wording "in that buffer".

    ! Suspending Emacs means stopping it temporarily and returning control to
    ! its parent process, which is usually a shell.  Unlike killing Emacs
    ! (q.v.@:), you can resume a suspended Emacs job without losing your
    ! buffers, unsaved edits, undo history, etc.  @xref{Exiting}.

That's not correct Engish.  This is better:

    ! Suspending Emacs means stopping it temporarily and returning control to
    ! its parent process, which is usually a shell.  Unlike killing Emacs
    ! (q.v.@:), suspending allows you to resume the same Emacs job later, without losing your
    ! buffers, unsaved edits, undo history, etc.  @xref{Exiting}.


    ! Symbols are objects with a unique name.  Symbols names are composed from
    ! characters classified (by the syntax table (q.v.@:)) as word and symbol
    ! constituents.  @xref{Syntax}.

That's a bit hard to read.  This is better:

    ! Symbols are objects with a unique name.  Symbols names are normally made
    ! up of word characters and symbol constituent characters (according 
    ! to the syntax table (q.v.@:)).  @xref{Syntax}.


      @item Whitespace
    ! Whitespace is any run of consecutive characters like space, tab,
    ! newline, and formfeed, that separate symbols and words from each other.
    ! @xref{Syntax}.

That is not as correct as the old text, so please keep the old text
for this.