Subject: Re: bug#31135: 26.1; documentation of left-word and right-word are unclear

From: Robert Pluim <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2018 12:13:25 +0200

Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]> writes:

>> From: Robert Pluim <[email-masked]>
>> Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2018 18:21:37 +0200
>> 
>> The documentation strings for left-word and right-word both say:
>> 
>>   Value is normally t.
>>   If an edge of the buffer or a field boundary is reached, point is left there
>>   there and the function returns nil.  Field boundaries are not noticed
>> 
>> 
>> 1. Which value is normally t?
>
> This is standard Emacs parlance: left-word is a function, and
> functions generally return values in Lisp.  So when we say "value is"
> in the doc string of a function, we mean the value returned by that
> function.
>

OK. Iʼve seen 'return value is' used elsewhere, now itʼs clear.

>> 2. 'there' is repeated in the second sentence.
>
> This kind of stuff needs to be fixed, no need to report it.

I found a few more repetitions like this [1], all in lisp
docstrings. emacs-26 branch, I imagine?

>From 60e10c503131f3088e901c7bbaaa53da816cf1e1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Robert Pluim <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2018 12:09:35 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Remove repetitions in documentation strings
To: [email-masked]

* lisp/bindings.el (right-word): Remove repetition
(left-word): Likewise.

* lisp/image-mode.el (image-mode-as-hex): Likewise.

* lisp/cedet/semantic/tag-ls.el (semantic-tag-similar-p): Likewise.

* lisp/textmodes/reftex-vars.el (reftex-view-crossref-extra): Likewise
---
 lisp/bindings.el              | 4 ++--
 lisp/cedet/semantic/tag-ls.el | 2 +-
 lisp/image-mode.el            | 2 +-
 lisp/textmodes/reftex-vars.el | 2 +-
 4 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/lisp/bindings.el b/lisp/bindings.el
index e03b9e9a0c..3e202b9b78 100644
--- a/lisp/bindings.el
+++ b/lisp/bindings.el
@@ -807,7 +807,7 @@ right-word
 
 Value is normally t.
 If an edge of the buffer or a field boundary is reached, point is left there
-there and the function returns nil.  Field boundaries are not noticed
+and the function returns nil.  Field boundaries are not noticed
 if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil."
   (interactive "^p")
   (if (eq (current-bidi-paragraph-direction) 'left-to-right)
@@ -823,7 +823,7 @@ left-word
 
 Value is normally t.
 If an edge of the buffer or a field boundary is reached, point is left there
-there and the function returns nil.  Field boundaries are not noticed
+and the function returns nil.  Field boundaries are not noticed
 if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil."
   (interactive "^p")
   (if (eq (current-bidi-paragraph-direction) 'left-to-right)
diff --git a/lisp/cedet/semantic/tag-ls.el b/lisp/cedet/semantic/tag-ls.el
index b9cce17669..39a4d9542e 100644
--- a/lisp/cedet/semantic/tag-ls.el
+++ b/lisp/cedet/semantic/tag-ls.el
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ semantic-tag-similar-p
 attributes, and IGNORABLE-ATTRIBUTES will augment this list.
 
 Note that even though :name is not an attribute, it can be used to
-to indicate lax comparison of names via `semantic--tag-similar-names-p'")
+indicate lax comparison of names via `semantic--tag-similar-names-p'")
 
 ;; Note: optional thing is because overloadable fcns don't handle this
 ;; quite right.
diff --git a/lisp/image-mode.el b/lisp/image-mode.el
index 1052ed9761..c0186f07a1 100644
--- a/lisp/image-mode.el
+++ b/lisp/image-mode.el
@@ -676,7 +676,7 @@ image-mode-as-hex
 to display an image file as the actual image.
 
 You can use `image-mode-as-hex' in `auto-mode-alist' when you want to
-to display an image file as hex initially.
+display an image file as hex initially.
 
 See commands `image-mode' and `image-minor-mode' for more information
 on these modes."
diff --git a/lisp/textmodes/reftex-vars.el b/lisp/textmodes/reftex-vars.el
index 01ee4f5fa4..11dbb8d570 100644
--- a/lisp/textmodes/reftex-vars.el
+++ b/lisp/textmodes/reftex-vars.el
@@ -1616,7 +1616,7 @@ reftex-view-crossref-extra
 
 MACRO-RE is matched against the macro.  SEARCH-RE is the regexp used
 to search for cross references.  `%s' in this regexp is replaced with
-with the macro argument at point.  HIGHLIGHT is an integer indicating
+the macro argument at point.  HIGHLIGHT is an integer indicating
 which subgroup of the match should be highlighted."
   :group 'reftex-viewing-cross-references
   :type '(repeat (group (regexp  :tag "Macro  Regexp  ")
-- 
2.17.0.rc1.35.g90bbd502d

Footnotes: 
[1]  After getting far too distracted by the emacs-lisp reference manual