GNU bug report logs - #1111
describe-key's key notation display inconsistency

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Message #34 received at 1111 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Drew Adams <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>
To: Noam Postavsky <npostavs <at> gmail.com>
Cc: xah lee <xah <at> xahlee.org>, 1111 <at> debbugs.gnu.org,
 Stefan Kangas <stefan <at> marxist.se>
Subject: RE: bug#1111: describe-key's key notation display inconsistency
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2019 17:14:44 -0700 (PDT)

> > The value of the event is a symbol.
> 
> I don't understand where you're getting that idea from.
> (info "(elisp) Keyboard Events"):
> 
>   There are two kinds of input you can get from the keyboard:
>   ordinary keys, and function keys.  Ordinary keys correspond to 
>   (possibly modified) characters; the events they generate are 
>   represented in Lisp as characters.

We're not talking about ordinary keys.  We're
talking about function keys.  They're not
represented as characters.  They're represented
as Lisp symbols.

(elisp) `Function Keys':

  Function keys are represented in Emacs Lisp as
  symbols; the symbol's name is the function key's
  label, in lower case.

  For example, pressing a key labeled <F1> generates
  an input event represented by the symbol 'f1'.

(Note: not the symbol `<f1>' - see my statement that
I think the doc that says that the angle brackets
are part of the event name is incorrect, per this
doc passage.)

  The event type of a function key event is the event
  symbol itself.  See Classifying Events.

  ... the symbol for the key <F3> with <META> held
  down is `M-f3'.

Similarly, in (elisp) `Classifying Events' it talks
about event types also being symbols:

  ... the event type for a function key symbol is
  the symbol itself.

"Function key symbol", there seems to be the
symbol talked about in `Function Keys'.  So function
keys and their events and the event types are all
"represented in Emacs Lisp by symbols".  Likewise,
event modifiers are symbols.

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