Subject: Re: bug#358: dabbrev-abbrev-char-regexp

From: Noam Postavsky <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2017 16:07:27 -0400

On Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 3:42 PM, Drew Adams <[email-masked]> wrote:
>> +For instance, if you are programming in Lisp, `yes-or-no-p' is a
>> +symbol, while `yes', `or', `no' and `p' are considered words.
>
> This text (same as before) is a bit misleading.  It makes it sound
> like `yes', `or', `no', and `p' are considered words but not symbols.
> They are also considered symbols.  Each of their characters has word
> syntax, but in Lisp those names name symbols.
>
> It is better not to talk about Lisp symbols at all here, I think.
> This is about the syntax categories symbol and word.  It is not
> about which names can be used for Lisp symbols.  (And there is
> no such thing as a Lisp "word".)

The text is using "symbol" as a shorthand for "text which
`forward-symbol' would move over" or "sequence of characters with word
or symbol constituent syntax", and "word" as short for "text which
`forward-word' would move over" or "sequence of characters with word
constituent syntax". I think it's reasonably clear from context (as
you say, there is no such thing as a Lisp "word" in any other sense),
but I have no problem replacing it with something less ambiguous if
you can come up with something that's not too long.