GNU bug report logs -
#76611
30.1; Elisp manual: Say what it means for a char to be printable
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Reported by: Drew Adams <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2025 17:49:02 UTC
Severity: normal
Found in version 30.1
Done: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.
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Your message dated Fri, 28 Feb 2025 20:56:02 +0200
with message-id <867c59sxtp.fsf <at> gnu.org>
and subject line Re: [External] : Re: bug#76611: 30.1; Elisp manual: Say what it means for a char to be printable
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #76611,
regarding 30.1; Elisp manual: Say what it means for a char to be printable
to be marked as done.
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76611: https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=76611
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[Message part 2 (message/rfc822, inline)]
(elisp)`Character Properties' describes variable `printable-chars', but
it doesn't say what "printable" means in this context. Please add
something about that.
Searching the manual elsewhere, we find only a mention in node `Usual
Display' of "printable ASCII characters" and non-printable ASCII control
characters".
But the printable chars, in general, are not limited to printable ASCII
control chars, so this mention doesn't help with understanding
`printable-chars'.
Please say what's meant by "printable" for `printable-chars'.
[ And I wonder if something shouldn't perhaps be added about (Lisp)
readability in this context. Some things in Lisp have a print
representation but that can't be read by the Lisp reader. I believe all
printable chars can be read by the reader. It wouldn't hurt to mention
this. ]
In GNU Emacs 30.1 (build 2, x86_64-w64-mingw32) of 2025-02-20 built on
AVALON
Windowing system distributor 'Microsoft Corp.', version 10.0.19045
System Description: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (v10.0.2009.19045.5487)
Configured using:
'configure --with-modules --without-dbus --with-native-compilation=aot
--without-compress-install --with-tree-sitter CFLAGS=-O2
prefix=/g/rel/emacs-30.1-rc1'
Configured features:
ACL GIF GMP GNUTLS HARFBUZZ JPEG LCMS2 LIBXML2 MODULES NATIVE_COMP
NOTIFY W32NOTIFY PDUMPER PNG RSVG SOUND SQLITE3 THREADS TIFF
TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS TREE_SITTER WEBP XPM ZLIB
(NATIVE_COMP present but libgccjit not available)
Important settings:
value of $LANG: ENU
locale-coding-system: cp1252
[Message part 3 (message/rfc822, inline)]
> From: Drew Adams <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>
> CC: "76611 <at> debbugs.gnu.org" <76611 <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
> Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2025 17:56:03 +0000
>
> > I don't understand what you are trying to say here. Is something
> > missing from the "Character Type" node of the ELisp manual and its
> > sub-nodes, wrt the read syntax of characters?
>
> I had in mind just mentioning in the context of the
> doc about printable chars that what's printed can
> be read by the Lisp reader.
>
> This is different from the read syntax of character
> objects: ?<CHAR>. It's not about reading character
> objects as such. It's about the reader's handling
> of printable chars.
>
> (aref printable-chars ?^L) => nil (pretend it's ^L)
>
> A Ctrl-L char isn't read by the reader, e.g. as part
> of a symbol name.
>
> But now that I think about it, it would probably be
> more confusing than helpful, because to explain it
> would dig a new rabbit hole, to no good.
>
> Feel free to close, if you haven't already.
Done now.
This bug report was last modified 81 days ago.
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