Subject: Re: bug#46926: Remove the quotes from highlighted/linked symbols when displaying docs

From: Gregory Heytings <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2021 16:27:43 +0000

>> You (and two other people) mentioned that you want to keep the 
>> functionality of "M-o M-o" in vanilla Emacs.
>>
>> Stefan M explained that "M-o M-o" = font-lock-fontify-block does not 
>> work well, and that he would like to deprecate it.
>>
>> I proposed a font-lock-update command that would be bound on "C-x x f", 
>> and said that while the "C-x x f" binding is less convenient than "M-o 
>> M-o", this regression is (largely?) compensated by the fact that 
>> font-lock-update works correctly, unlike font-lock-fontify-block. 
>> Moreover, the font-lock-update command is also more general, as it can 
>> be used to correctly toggle Font Lock mode, which M-x font-lock-mode 
>> can't do.
>
> That's the "dispute" I alluded to.  If the word "dispute" is unfortunate 
> here, I take it back, but the main point remains: the issue is still 
> under discussion, with new aspects being revealed and discussed, so it 
> doesn't sound like we gathered enough feedback to allow us to make a 
> decision, not yet anyway.
>

As far as I can see, all aspects have been revealed and discussed, but the 
discussion has stalled.  In short, font-lock-fontify-buffer and 
font-lock-fontify-block are "defined by their implementation" as Stefan M 
said, which means that they don't work as they should.  The command I 
proposed is short (five lines), and uses font-lock-fontify-region, which 
does not have that problem.