Subject: bug#24891: 25.1: Falsehood on page "Major Modes" of Emacs manual.

From: Alan Mackenzie <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Nov 2016 20:39:59 +0000

Hello, Drew.

On Sun, Nov 06, 2016 at 03:19:57PM -0800, Drew Adams wrote:
> > In the Emacs manual, page "Major Modes" appears the following:

> >     all programming language modes run `prog-mode-hook', prior to
> >     running their own mode hooks.

> > I suggest amending this sentence to something like:

> >     many programming language modes (including all these distributed
> >     with Emacs) run `prog-mode-hook', prior to runnuing their own
> >     mode hooks.

> +1.

> But: these -> those,
>      runnuing -> running,

Yes, thanks.

>      and we can drop the comma before "prior".

Maybe, maybe not.  The bit beginning with "prior" isn't qualifying what
comes before, it's adding an extra bit of independent information, so the
comma is justified.

> And I'm not sure why we need to or should say "(including...)".  Why?

I'm told there are users who put things in prog-mode-hook to get effects
in (nearly) all programming modes.  It will avoid confusing them.  Also,
on a purely pragmatic point, the "(including...)" bit is likely to reduce
objections to my proposed change, allowing it to get into Emacs 25.2 more
smoothly.

> I'd suggest just this:

>   many programming language modes run `prog-mode-hook' before
>   running their own mode hooks

> Or even "some" instead of "many".  What does it matter how
> many do this?

"Some" is not incorrect, but it's not quite accurate either.  "Some"
tends to carry connotations of "not that many" in English when a context
hasn't been established.  I think it's the case that most programming
language modes are now derived from prog-mode, so "many" warns users to
be aware of exceptions.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).