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Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created
From: |
Alan Mackenzie |
Subject: |
Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created |
Date: |
Fri, 22 Sep 2017 18:04:40 +0000 |
User-agent: |
Mutt/1.7.2 (2016-11-26) |
Hello, Paul.
On Thu, Sep 21, 2017 at 22:19:53 -0700, Paul Eggert wrote:
> Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> > I have redefined
> > the value of nil in text-quoting-style to mean "no translation of
> > quotes" and introduced t to mean "prefer curved quotes", the meaning nil
> > previously had.
> Let's not change the semantics of text-quoting-style's values. Such a change
> is
> not worth the compatibility hassle to users.
What compatibility hassle? There is none. The only hassle would come
if some user had written something like:
(setq text-quoting-style nil)
in her .emacs. Users don't set configuration variables to their
defaults. Life is too short for that.
Or can you picture some other scenario which would cause hassle?
> John asked you to propose a patch to make text-quoting-style
> customizable, not to change its semantics.
Its semantics is entirely unchanged in every important respect.
> Whether text-quoting-style is customizable is orthogonal to what its
> values mean, and we shouldn't conflate the two issues.
There will be no other chance to correct the poor choice of symbols in
text-quoting-style. It has to be done now, or it can never be done.
> > quotes. In contrast, a call using a format like @t{"Missing '%s'"}
> > with only apostrophes typically generates a message like @t{"Missing
> > ’foo’"} with only closing curved quotes, an unusual style in English.
> > +One way around this problem is to bind @code{text-quoting-style} to
> > address@hidden around the call to @code{error}; this causes the
> > address@hidden quote characters to be output unchanged.
> This doc patch, which occurs in multiple places, heads in the wrong
> direction.
> "Missing `%s'" is the typical way to quote in Emacs source code. The current
> documentation gently warns the programmer to avoid "Missing '%s'" as this is
> not
> the usual Emacs style ....
See below.
> .... and typically won't look good anyway. If the warning is not clear
> enough we should clarify it, not encourage proliferation of atypical
> formats.
Again, see below.
But the main point here is to remind the reader that quotes can be
output as is by binding text-quoting-style, regardless of whether these
quotes are used in pairs to, er, quote something, or whether they need
to stand for themselves (as was the case in cc-engine.el some while
ago). Perhaps you could suggest an improved wording which would give
the reader clear information about binding text-quoting-style, but
without appearing to encourage any non-standard quoting styles.
> > +** The variable `text-quoting-style' is now a customizable option. It
> This (and other changes to NEWS) should use straight quotes, as that's the
> style
> used in NEWS now.
A non-standard quoting style in NEWS? ;-) OK, I'll fix that NEWS item.
--
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).
Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created, Paul Eggert, 2017/09/19
Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created, John Wiegley, 2017/09/20
- Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created, Alan Mackenzie, 2017/09/21
- Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created, Paul Eggert, 2017/09/22
- Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created, John Wiegley, 2017/09/22
- Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created,
Alan Mackenzie <=
- Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created, John Wiegley, 2017/09/22
- Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created, Paul Eggert, 2017/09/22
- Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created, Alan Mackenzie, 2017/09/24
- Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created, Paul Eggert, 2017/09/24
- Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created, Alan Mackenzie, 2017/09/24
Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created, Eli Zaretskii, 2017/09/22
Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created, Alan Mackenzie, 2017/09/22
Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created, Stefan Monnier, 2017/09/22
Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created, John Wiegley, 2017/09/22
Re: Emacs 26.1 release branch created, Alan Mackenzie, 2017/09/22