Subject: Re: bug#64693: Documentation for the definition of a Menu Item

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2023 14:03:32 +0300

> Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2023 20:44:04 +0000
> From:  uzibalqa via "Bug reports for GNU Emacs,
>  the Swiss army knife of text editors" <[email-masked]>
> 
> 
> Have been looking at the documentation for 'DEF' in 'define-key'.
> 
> (define-key KEYMAP KEY DEF &optional REMOVE)
> 
> DEF, the definition of a Menu Item is described in form as 
> 
>    (menu-item item-name binding . item-property-list)
> 
> Note that DEF constitutes a single list.  The special
> dotted notation indicates that 'item-property-list' is not
> a separate list but rather enables any number of property
> elements in the form of ':keyword value' within the same
> list structure.
> 
> But such detail is not properly described.

If you type "i property list RET" in Info, you will land in the
"Property Lists" node, which starts by saying:

  A “property list” (“plist” for short) is a list of paired elements.
  Each of the pairs associates a property name (usually a symbol) with a
  property or value.

So I think when the manual says that item-property-list is a property
list, it does a good job.

> Furthermore, a more comprehensive explanation of Cons Cells, Dotted
> Notation, and Backquote Construct, should be introduced and backed up 
> with real-life syntax such as the one described here.

This is all properly done elsewhere in the manual; see my response to
your report in bug#64692.

So I'm closing this bug.