GNU bug report logs - #15014
24.3.50; In text-mode, incorrect forward-sexp causes delete-pair malfunction

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Barry OReilly <gundaetiapo <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 24.3.50;
 In text-mode, incorrect forward-sexp causes delete-pair malfunction
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2013 18:15:39 -0400

In a file with text-mode, try forward-sexp across a double quoted
string: "foo". Unlike in programming modes, point goes before the
closing double quote instead of after.

A consequence of this is that delete-pair on

  "foo"

results in

  fo"

instead of

  foo

as expected.

In GNU Emacs 24.3.50.1 (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.10.4)
 of 2013-06-18 on psd15
Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.70101000
System Description:	Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client release 5.4 (Tikanga)

Configured using:
 `configure
 --prefix=/redacted/user/boreilly/sw/emacs-install-trunk-20899d085afe62520113b5acbfe3dbba57823dc9
 --with-gif=no'

Important settings:
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  value of $XMODIFIERS: @im=none
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix
  default enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Lisp Interaction

Minor modes in effect:
  tooltip-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  tool-bar-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

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Message #8 received at 15014 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca>
To: Barry OReilly <gundaetiapo <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 15014 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#15014: 24.3.50;
 In text-mode, incorrect forward-sexp causes delete-pair malfunction
Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 21:23:44 -0400

> In a file with text-mode, try forward-sexp across a double quoted
> string: "foo". Unlike in programming modes, point goes before the
> closing double quote instead of after.

In text-mode, double-quotes are not considered as pair-delimiters, so
the behavior is "the expected one".  E.g. point stops after the second
`o', because the sexp it skipped is the symbol `foo' and the " are
considered as irrelevant punctuation.

So, IIUC you're arguing for marking " as having paired-delimiter syntax,
as is the case in most programming modes.


        Stefan

Message #11 received at 15014 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Barry OReilly <gundaetiapo <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 15014 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#15014: 24.3.50; In text-mode, incorrect forward-sexp causes
 delete-pair malfunction
Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2013 13:01:30 -0400

> So, IIUC you're arguing for marking " as having paired-delimiter
> syntax, as is the case in most programming modes.

I'm arguing for behavior that makes sense for the user. This seems
like the way to achieve that.

Message #14 received at 15014 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca>
To: Barry OReilly <gundaetiapo <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 15014 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#15014: 24.3.50;
 In text-mode, incorrect forward-sexp causes delete-pair malfunction
Date: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 17:17:44 -0400

>> So, IIUC you're arguing for marking " as having paired-delimiter
>> syntax, as is the case in most programming modes.
> I'm arguing for behavior that makes sense for the user.

You mean "to this user" ;-)

> This seems like the way to achieve that.

Indeed.  I do expect that most programmers will use " in text-mode in
ways that behave well when treated as string delimiters, so that might
be a good option in general, but if some text contains a non-matched "
the behavior tends to be pretty annoying, so I'm not sure it's a safe
enough change.


        Stefan

Message #17 received at 15014 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Barry OReilly <gundaetiapo <at> gmail.com>
To: Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca>
Cc: 15014 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#15014: 24.3.50; In text-mode, incorrect forward-sexp causes
 delete-pair malfunction
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2013 10:15:14 -0400

> You mean "to this user"

Oh, I'm the only user who thinks this is wrong behavior for
forward-sexp and delete-pair?

> I do expect that most programmers will use " in text-mode in ways
> that behave well when treated as string delimiters, so that might be
> a good option in general, but if some text contains a non-matched "
> the behavior tends to be pretty annoying, so I'm not sure it's a
> safe enough change.

I'm not arguing here that we font lock double quoted strings (though
I'm not convinced either). Without font locking, I can't think of a
concrete case that yields the "pretty annoying behavior". What do you
have in mind?

I added

  (modify-syntax-entry ?\" "$")

to my configuration and find that forward-sexp and delete-pair seem to
work without confusion, even in the presence of odd double quotes. It
seems forward-sexp just scans forward from point.

Message #20 received at 15014 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
To: Barry OReilly <gundaetiapo <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 15014 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#15014: 24.3.50; In text-mode, incorrect forward-sexp causes
 delete-pair malfunction
Date: Mon, 06 Sep 2021 12:04:56 +0200

Barry OReilly <gundaetiapo <at> gmail.com> writes:

> In a file with text-mode, try forward-sexp across a double quoted
> string: "foo". Unlike in programming modes, point goes before the
> closing double quote instead of after.
>
> A consequence of this is that delete-pair on
>
>   "foo"
>
> results in
>
>   fo"
>
> instead of
>
>   foo
>
> as expected.

(I'm going through old bug reports that unfortunately weren't resolved
at the time.)

When I try this in Emacs 28, I get:

delete-pair: Not before matching pair

Which is the expected behaviour, since " isn't paired in text modes.  So
it seems like this has been fixed in the eight years since you reported
it (although not in the way you requested -- but we're not going to make
" a paired delimited in text modes by default, because that'd be pretty
confusing, I think), so I'm closing this bug report.  If there's more to
be worked on here, please respond to the debbugs address and we'll
reopen.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

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