bug#19834: Specifying File Variables - does not allow setting comment-start to semicolon

bug#19834: Specifying File Variables - does not allow setting comment-start to semicolon

[Jari Aalto]

Package: emacs
Version: 46.1
Severity: normal

The following causes systax error if put on file. It seems
that ";" isn't taken as the comment-start. This example is
from Windows AHK configuration file <http://www.autohotkey.com>.

;; Local Variables:
;; mode: text ;
;; comment-start: ;
;; End:

-- System Information
Debian Release: jessie/sid
  APT Prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, testing) (500, unstable)
Architecture: amd64
Kernel: Linux picasso 3.2.0-4-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 3.2.41-2 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Locale: LANG=en_DK.UTF-8

-- Versions of packages `emacs depends on'.
Depends:
emacs24         24.4+1-4.1      GNU Emacs editor (with GTK+ GUI support)
emacs24-lucid   24.4+1-4.1      GNU Emacs editor (with Lucid GUI support)
emacs24-nox     24.4+1-4.1      GNU Emacs editor (without GUI support)

bug#19834: Specifying File Variables - does not allow setting comment-start to semicolon

[Nicolas Richard]

Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@cante.net> writes:

> ;; Local Variables:
> ;; mode: text ;
> ;; comment-start: ;
> ;; End:

it seems to me this should be written as

;; Local Variables:
;; mode: text
;; comment-start: ";"
;; End:

-- 
Nico.

bug#19834: Specifying File Variables - does not allow setting comment-start to semicolon

[jari]

On 2015-02-11 10:26, Nicolas Richard wrote:
| Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@cante.net> writes:
| 
| > ;; Local Variables:
| > ;; mode: text ;
| > ;; comment-start: ;
| > ;; End:
| 
| it seems to me this should be written as
| 
| ;; Local Variables:
| ;; mode: text
| ;; comment-start: ";"
| ;; End:

Please document this in

https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Specifying-File-Variables.html#Specifying-File-Variables

as semicolon seems to be a special case.

Jari

bug#19834: Specifying File Variables - does not allow setting comment-start to semicolon

[Glenn Morris]

jari wrote:

> Please document this in
>
> https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Specifying-File-Variables.html#Specifying-File-Variables
>
> as semicolon seems to be a special case.

comment-start is a string, so trying to set it to ; rather than ";" is
simply a user-error.

I don't think "how to set a variable to a literal semicolon" is worth
documenting, since it's not something that you need to do.