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

From: Paul Eggert <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2015 12:38:22 -0700

On 04/23/2015 11:23 AM, Drew Adams wrote:
> 1. What exactly do you mean by "people who prefer...will still be free
>     to do that"?  Is this choice only at the end-user level?  Can a
>     library make such a choice (to be possibly overridden by a user choice)?

I mean that Lisp code can use either style in its doc strings, and Emacs 
will work either way.  End users will see what's in the doc string; I'm 
not proposing any on-the-fly reformatting (other than what's already 
there, for limited old displays), as I doubt whether the extra 
complexity would be worth the hassle in the long run.

> 2. Does your proposed change affect only Info?

The proposed change doesn't affect info.  Info files in the Emacs 
distribution already use curved single quotes.  Texinfo files will 
continue to use quotes `like this', to indicate curved single quotes in 
Emacs's info files.  Similarly, quoting ``like this'' in a Texinfo file 
will continue to generate curved double quotes in Emacs's info files.

>     users should have the same experience wrt such
>     code quoting for Info, doc strings, and Emacs-Lisp (doc strings and
>     comments).

Yes, that's the longer term proposal for Emacs's files, using curved 
single quotes.  The current patch is one step in that direction. Under 
this approach, users who prefer to quote `like this' will still be able 
to do that in their own doc strings and manuals.