Re: [Emacs-diffs] master 9ce1d38: Use curved quotes in core elisp diagnostics

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

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  > > what benefit is there in putting
  > > any real curly quotes into those doc strings?

  > Format strings are easier to read and use, particularly by novices, if 
  > characters typically stand for themselves.

The issue at hand is doc strings in the source code, not format strings.
Those are a different issue.

  >    ... To get the number of bytes, use ‘string-bytes’. ...

  > Users can cut this text from *Help* and paste it directly into their source 
  > code's doc strings; this is simpler than having to change those quotation marks

It's a bad practice to copy text from a help buffer into
a doc string in the source code.  There are several constructs
used in source code doc strings that get converted into something
different in a help buffer.  So if you want to copy one doc string
into another, you should copy from source code.

I doubt that case arises very often, though.  If the user's new
function is so similar to an existing function that he wants to copy
from its doc string, he probably wrote his function by modifying the
code of that function, and probably already has its doc string.


-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation (gnu.org, fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (internethalloffame.org)
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