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Re: allout mode patch for a few small bugs and cleanup of mode docstring


From: Ken Manheimer
Subject: Re: allout mode patch for a few small bugs and cleanup of mode docstring
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:04:13 -0500

On 11/29/06, Kim F. Storm <address@hidden> wrote:

I see that you changed several occurrences of ... ( ... ) ... to
.. \( ... \) ... in the doc string.

You only need to quote a ( in the rare case that it occurs in
the first column of a line, and you never need to quote a ).

Appendix D.6 of the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual says:

   * If a line in a documentation string begins with an
     open-parenthesis, write a backslash before the open-parenthesis,
     like this:

          The argument FOO can be either a number
          \(a buffer position) or a string (a file name).

     This prevents the open-parenthesis from being treated as the start
     of a defun (*note Defuns: (emacs)Defuns.).

thanks for the tip - i've wondered about a few nuances concerning
escaping parens, and i might as well ask, while the issue is raised.

first, does it hurt to escape open parens excessively?  i ask because
i deliberately tend to quote all leading opens, so i can flow
docstring paragraphs without worry about surprises.  it would not be a
hardship to be more discriminating, but still wonder if there's a
drawback beyond the increased mystery (onions-in-the-varnish wise) of
unnecessary escaping.

i'm pretty haphazard about escaping the close parens, but decided to
shoot for consistency in this last edit - apparently in the wrong
direction. (i don't see any prohibition against escaping the close
parens, but i suppose it's more onions-in-the-varnish noise.) it would
be nice if there were a way to get paren matching for an escaped open
paren, and i gather there currently is no provision for that.  is that
right?

just curious, mostly.
--
ken
address@hidden
http://myriadicity.net




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