GNU bug report logs - #6521
23.2; Elisp Manual Ommission

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From: Tim Cross <tcross <at> rapttech.com.au>
To: 6521 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#6521: 23.2; Elisp Manual Ommission 
Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:02:52 +1000

It appears the section from the emacs manual that use to describe the
old pre emacs 19.29 behavior with backquotes has been removed. In
previous versions of the manual, it use to describe what this old
behavior was and why it is no longer required. However, it now only
describes the use of backquote as it should now be used.

I think it would be a good idea to put the description of the old
section back into the manual. The reason is that 

        1. The compiler, when warning of code that still uses the old
        backquote format references this node, but there is no reference
        to the old behavior in the node anymore. This makes things less
        clear to new users that perhaps it should be.

        2. It may not be obvious to more recent users exactly what the
        old behavior was, making it more difficult to identify the old
        style and understand how it use to be formatted in order to
        update the code to use the correct modern style.

        3. This is likely to become a bigger issue now that emacs 24 is
        changing to assume a backquote with a space following it is
        modern style. I just encountered code which failed to compile
        due to this. When wanting to clarify my understanding, I found
        nothing relevant in the manual. 

I was referencing version 3 of the elisp manual (for emacs version
24.0.50).

regards,

Tim


-- 
Tim Cross
tcross <at> rapttech.com.au

There are two types of people in IT - those who do not manage what they 
understand and those who do not understand what they manage.

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