GNU bug report logs - #52765
26.3; Elisp manual, use of the term "field"

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From: Drew Adams <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>
To: 52765 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#52765: 26.3; Elisp manual, use of the term "field"
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2021 01:25:03 +0000

[The Emacs manual uses the term "field" in several different ways, in
different contexts.  That's OK, though you might consider adding a
Glossary entry for the term and give brief definitions of those main
meanings there.]

In any case, this bug report is about the Elisp manual.  There, "field"
is used very little, except in node `Fields'.  My suggestion is to use
"field" in that manual only with the meaning presented in that node.
The other occurrences of "field" in the manual could usefully employ a
different word, to avoid confusion.

FWIW, this occurred to me when I saw mention in an Emacs mailing list
that thing-at-point will now optionally respect a field at point.  That
makes it important that Elisp coders have some doc about fields.  I was
happy to find that the Elisp manual already provides that.

(BTW, it would be good if the Elisp manual, like the Emacs manual, had a
glossary node.)

In GNU Emacs 26.3 (build 1, x86_64-w64-mingw32)
 of 2019-08-29
Repository revision: 96dd0196c28bc36779584e47fffcca433c9309cd
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 10.0.19042
Configured using:
 `configure --without-dbus --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32
 --without-compress-install 'CFLAGS=-O2 -static -g3''

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