GNU bug report logs - #31125
26; (emacs) `Highlight Interactively'

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From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Drew Adams <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>
Cc: 31125 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#31125: 26; (emacs) `Highlight Interactively'
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2018 14:38:08 +0300

> Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2018 21:37:50 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Drew Adams <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>
> Cc: 31125-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> Yes, I'm aware of that.  And that additional, syntactic
> meaning of "symbol" in Emacs jargon has little-to-nothing
> to do with Lisp symbols.
> 
> A reader won't learn anything about Lisp symbols by
> reading that node.  On the contrary: s?he will instead
> mislearn something untrue that suggests it is about Lisp
> symbols but is not.
> 
> A Lisp symbol is not just "a source code token", nor are
> Lisp-mode "source code tokens" necessarily Lisp symbols.
> Using `forward-symbol' or "symbol search" in Lisp does
> not move across or find Lisp symbols.
>  
> It's too bad that Emacs chose to appropriate the term
> "symbol" for that other, essentially unrelated meaning.
> But it did.  It's a shame because Lisp is something
> really important to Emacs, and so to Emacs users.  And
> symbols are something important to Lisp.
> 
> This is what Lisp symbols are about (though they have
> additional characteristics):
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbol_(programming)

We were talking about the user manual, where the reader is not
necessarily a Lisp programmer.  For the latter, see "Symbols" in the
ELisp manual.

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