Re: Upcoming loss of usability of Emacs source files and Emacs.

[Tassilo Horn]

Drew Adams <address@hidden> writes:

> Tassilo's point here, I think, and at least my point here, is that
> this is *not at all about quotation* in the usual sense.

Yes, Drew, your points are pretty much what I've meant to say here, too.
Plus the additional point that if we're going to use something which is
better to type with some input aid anyway, then we could also go the
complete step and have a real Docstring Markup Language which would
allow to refer to foo-bar the function (not the variable), or to
insert-char the symbol (not the function).

Basically, with ‘...’ instead of `...' it might be a bit less ambiguous
that ... is something special but what kind of special thing ... is
still needs to be grasped from the context (and by the heuristics that
generate the *Help* buffers).  So with some new-style docstrings we can
solve the technical ambiguity (where does `(foo 'bar)' end?) and the
semantical ambiguity (does the author refer to foo-bar the function, the
variable, or the symbol?), too.

Bye,
Tassilo