Subject: Re: bug#20385: [PROPOSED PATCH] Support quoting 'like this' in doc strings

From: Paul Eggert <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2015 10:32:01 -0700

On 04/23/2015 04:15 AM, Nicolas Petton wrote:
> quoting code in
> elisp docstrings would only be reasonably doable from Emacs' elisp mode,

No, they're reasonably doable from any editor that supports smart 
quoting.  Although Emacs doesn't have this option, it's common 
elsewhere, and it shouldn't be that hard to add it to Emacs.

As for quoting `like this` that still doesn't sound like a good idea.  
Do we really want to switch to Markdown (or something like it) for doc 
strings?  That would be a much bigger project, and would be work that 
nobody's prepared to do, and its overall costs could well exceed its 
benefits.

Finally, from this thread it's clear that some folks like quoting `like 
this' and I suppose there's no harm in continuing to support it, so in 
my next iteration of this patch I plan to remove commentary to the 
effect that this usage is obsolescent and may not be supported in the 
future.  So, people who prefer quoting `like this' (e.g., because it's 
easier with their non-Emacs text editors), will still be free to do that.