bug#25195: 25.1; Index backslash for escape of left-margin paren

bug#25195: 25.1; Index backslash for escape of left-margin paren

[Drew Adams]

The Emacs manual, node `Left Margin Convention', seems to be the only
place that the convention of a paren in column 0 is documented.  The
backslash escaping is not indexed however - it should be.

It should also be documented in the Elisp manual, I think.  And so
should the similar escaping of a column-zero paren or bracket in a doc
string.  I could not find any mention of this.  And again, doc of these
features should be indexed under backslash escaping.

In GNU Emacs 25.1.1 (x86_64-w64-mingw32)
 of 2016-09-17 built on LAPHROAIG
Windowing system distributor 'Microsoft Corp.', version 6.1.7601
Configured using:
 'configure --without-dbus --without-compress-install CFLAGS=-static'

bug#25195: 25.1; Index backslash for escape of left-margin paren

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

> The Emacs manual, node `Left Margin Convention', seems to be the only
> place that the convention of a paren in column 0 is documented.  The
> backslash escaping is not indexed however - it should be.

Hm...  Well, it does say that if you have a parent in column 0, then
it's treated specially.  If you have

"bla bla
\(foo bar)"

then the ( isn't in column zero, and \( => ( in this context.

So I'm not sure this is even a convention; it's just a work-around.  And
what character to use in what language to get a similar effect is surely
language-dependent?

So I don't think this is something that needs expounding upon; closing.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#25195: 25.1; Index backslash for escape of left-margin paren

[Drew Adams]

> > The Emacs manual, node `Left Margin Convention', seems to be the only
> > place that the convention of a paren in column 0 is documented.  The
> > backslash escaping is not indexed however - it should be.
> 
> Hm...  Well, it does say that if you have a parent in column 0, then
> it's treated specially.  If you have
> 
> "bla bla
> \(foo bar)"
> 
> then the ( isn't in column zero, and \( => ( in this context.
> 
> So I'm not sure this is even a convention; it's just a work-around.
> And what character to use in what language to get a similar effect is
> surely language-dependent?
> 
> So I don't think this is something that needs expounding upon; closing.

(I should have said mode `Left Margin Paren'.
The title of the node is "Left Margin Convention".)

I don't understand what you're saying.

If you have a paren in column 0 then you need to
escape it, to make indentation, movement etc.
work well.

What's not a convention about that (see the title)?
But what difference does it make if you prefer to
see it as a workaround.  Users need to know about
it, which is why we document it.

And it's why we font-lock delimiters "that ought
to be quoted".  ("Ought" is a strong word, showing
that this is indeed intended as a convention.)

And it's why we have a variable to inhibit the need
for such escaping - also documented in this node.

And it's not just for a paren - same thing for other
delimiters.  E.g., in Elisp a (square) bracket.

bug#25195: 25.1; Index backslash for escape of left-margin paren

[Noam Postavsky]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> So I don't think this is something that needs expounding upon; closing.

I don't we need to "expound" on anything, the report just asks about
indexing.  So with something like the diff below, if someone sees 

"bla bla
\(foo bar)"

And they wonder "what's that \( thing for?", they could do i \( RET to
find the right spot in the manual.

--- i/doc/emacs/programs.texi
+++ w/doc/emacs/programs.texi
@@ -180,6 +180,7 @@ Left Margin Paren
 affect the contents of the string, but will prevent that opening
 delimiter from starting a defun.  Here's an example:
 
+@cindex \( in strings
 @example
   (insert "Foo:
 \(bar)

bug#25195: 25.1; Index backslash for escape of left-margin paren

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Noam Postavsky <npostavs@gmail.com> writes:

> I don't we need to "expound" on anything, the report just asks about
> indexing.  So with something like the diff below, if someone sees 
>
> "bla bla
> \(foo bar)"
>
> And they wonder "what's that \( thing for?", they could do i \( RET to
> find the right spot in the manual.

Makes sense; please apply.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#25195: 25.1; Index backslash for escape of left-margin paren

[Noam Postavsky]

tags 25195 = fixed
close 25195 26.3
quit

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> Noam Postavsky <npostavs@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> I don't we need to "expound" on anything, the report just asks about
>> indexing.  So with something like the diff below, if someone sees 
>>
>> "bla bla
>> \(foo bar)"
>>
>> And they wonder "what's that \( thing for?", they could do i \( RET to
>> find the right spot in the manual.
>
> Makes sense; please apply.

Done in emacs-26; I added an xref in the elisp manual too.

1d9efc0b3a 2019-07-30T09:06:18-04:00 "Add index for "\( in strings" (Bug#25195)"
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/commit/?id=1d9efc0b3a60fda86885001b229b6528ffb931df

bug#25195: 25.1; Index backslash for escape of left-margin paren

[Drew Adams]

> Done in emacs-26; I added an xref in the elisp manual too.

Thanks.  That helps.

bug#25195: 25.1; Index backslash for escape of left-margin paren

[Glenn Morris]

> 1d9efc0b3a 2019-07-30T09:06:18-04:00 "Add index for "\( in strings" (Bug#25195)"
> https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/commit/?id=1d9efc0b3a60fda86885001b229b6528ffb931df

The doc/emacs index cannot be merged to master owing to aead21d.
The doc/lispref change did merge, but is perhaps no longer relevant
owing to the same.

bug#25195: 25.1; Index backslash for escape of left-margin paren

[Noam Postavsky]

Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> writes:

>> 1d9efc0b3a 2019-07-30T09:06:18-04:00 "Add index for "\( in strings" (Bug#25195)"
>> https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/commit/?id=1d9efc0b3a60fda86885001b229b6528ffb931df
>
> The doc/emacs index cannot be merged to master owing to aead21d.
> The doc/lispref change did merge, but is perhaps no longer relevant
> owing to the same.

Oh, forgot about that.  I think index in lispref is okay, I just removed
the xref.

0aa4bfaab8 2019-07-31T08:33:28-04:00 "Remove no-longer relevant xref"
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/commit/?id=0aa4bfaab8f7452ad1c972e60e3e0745fa16f9b6