Subject: bug#50760: [External] : Re: bug#50760: 26.3; Add `symbol' to the Emacs manul glossary

From: Drew Adams <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2021 18:53:17 +0000

> > There are (at least) two important meanings of "symbol" in Emacs:
> >
> > 1. The usual Lisp meaning, which is meaningful only in Lisp.
> >
> > 2. The Elisp meaning of characters with symbol-constituent syntax.
> And perhaps names composed of such chars, possibly combined with chars
> with other syntax, e.g., typically word-constituent.
> >
> > For example, in programming languages (not only Elisp), we have
> commands such as `forward-symbol'.  They move over or otherwise
> manipulate names composed of symbol-constituent chars and sometimes
> other kinds of chars.
> >
> > Emacs users deserve to know about these quite different meanings, I
> think. Each such meaning is important to using Emacs.
> 
> The meaning of "symbol" for searching is explained in "Symbol Search".

Great.  Add that meaning to the glossary entry, please.
(And it's also movement commands, not just search.)

A user seeing the doc string for `C-h S'
(`info-lookup-symbol') can well wonder what "symbol"
means.

My observation comes from someone having questioned
possibly using the word "symbol" in a help menu item
(for `info-lookup-symbol').  The term isn't obvious,
especially for new users.