Re: bug#1406: backward-up-list reports scan error incorrectly?

[Xah Lee]

On Nov 27, 4:19 am, Alan Mackenzie <a...@muc.de> wrote:
> Hi, Xah!
>
> > > though, isn't this something easy to fix?
> > No, because it isn't a bug.  It's the way the function is meant to work.
> > If there is a bug, it's that the doc-string (and maybe the elisp manual,
> > I haven't looked) is vague and incomplete.
>
> I've amended the Emacs manual (.../doc/emacs/programs.texi) and the doc
> strings of `backward-up-list' and several similar functions
> (.../lisp/emacs-lisp/lisp.el).
>
> If you're interested, have a look at the changes in
> <http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/emacs/?root=emacs>.

Thanks Alan.

I'd rather hope for a fix instead of change wording to reflect current
situation.

You argued in bug list that the issue is not simple essentially due to
the fact that straight quote chars are not matching.

That is true, but i think given today's tech and computing power, we
should over come this. Just assume that double quotes in the source
code are matched, since they are most of the time. In the few cases
when the backward-up-list went to the wrong place due to un-matched
double quote, i think that's ok.

alternatively, if the cursor is inside double quote, then issue a
warning in the messag area that the result may not be correct.

Also, since this works in text-mode, so another solution is to
temporarily switch to that mode, do the cursor move, then switch back.
Or temp set the syntax table to whatever chat that made text-mode work
and emacs-lisp-mode not work.

In general, my feeling is that moving around nested pairs is a trivial
issue, that given today's technology and software, it seems wimpy to
tell users that backward-up-list won't work if it's inside double
quotes due to some complexities. Much complex problems are solved
today in emacs, in other IDEs, etc.

Thanks though for the fix on the doc.

  Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄