Re: drew.adams@oracle.com: bug in read-kbd-macro

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: "Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com>
> Cc: <bojohan+news@dd.chalmers.se>, <emacs-devel@gnu.org>,
>         <karl@freefriends.org>
> Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 17:18:37 -0700
> 
> The UI notation is not the same as the manual notation.

What is ``the UI notation''?

> You, I think, are speaking of consistency within the manual.

Yes.

>     > 2. It's useful to have the same notation for both online
>     and printed manual, in general.
>     
>     Given how @key is typeset in the printed version, this is
>     clearly impossible, except in the graphics session of Emacs,
>     and then only if we hide the text of the Info file and show
>     some image in its stead.
> 
> No; it is possible.  Just do the opposite: bring the printed
> version into line with the online version, even the non-graphic
> (i.e. console) version, by using `next' for both.

I think this is silly.  The printed version is more powerful than a
plain text version, and there's no need to go to the lowest common
denominator just for consistency's sake.  It's good enough that the
two are sufficiently similar.

Btw, @var causes its argument to be typeset in italics in the printed
version, but in the Info version it produces UPPERCASE.  Would you
suggest to typeset it in upper-case in the printed manual as well, for
consistency's sake?  It's absurd, I think.

> I explained (in the part that you omitted) that separation by
> spaces (e.g. `p r i o r' vs `prior') is an alternative convention
> for a key sequence, which disambiguates the two just as well

The problem is not how to show sequence of keys, the problem is how to
prevent the user from erroneously interpreting "Type `FOO'" as meaning
that she should type those literal characters.  It's about possible
reader's confusion, not about our notation.