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bug#33541: 26; Doc string of `align-regexp'


From: Phil Sainty
Subject: bug#33541: 26; Doc string of `align-regexp'
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2018 12:22:18 +1300
User-agent: Orcon Webmail

I think the docstring is clear, provided that you read all of it; but
it could undoubtedly be improved, especially as this is a slightly
fiddly command to get to grips with.

Perhaps your concern could be addressed by tweaking the paragraph
starting "REGEXP must contain at least one parenthesized subexpression"
so that it says:

"Non-interactively, REGEXP must contain at least one parenthesized...."

(which strictly speaking is perhaps less correct than what it says now,
yet I think in practice would make things slightly clearer.)

I would also change "automatically added" to "automatically prefixed".


-Phil



On 2018-11-29 06:26, Drew Adams wrote:
These two paragraphs seem to contradict each other:

 There is no predefined rule to handle this, but you could easily do it
 using a REGEXP like "(".  Interactively, all you would have to do is
to mark the region, call 'align-regexp' and enter that regular expression.

REGEXP must contain at least one parenthesized subexpression, typically
 whitespace of the form "\\(\\s-*\\)".  In normal interactive use,
this is automatically added to the start of your regular expression after you enter it. You only need to supply the characters to be lined up, and
 any preceding whitespace is replaced.

It cannot be the case that both (1) all you have to input as regexp is
"(" and (2) the input regexp must contain a group subexpression.

It's also unclear to say that REGEXP must contain... and also say that
something gets added automatically to it.

Yes, it's correct, provided a user interprets "REGEXP" only as the Lisp
argument and not directly as the regexp she enters.  Clearer wording
would be welcome, distinguishing (1) what you have to input (do you need
to include a group subexpression?  even if it is the whitespace prefix
"\\(\\s-*\\)"?) from what is required as the REGEXP argument to the
function.

In particular (minimum fix), it is incorrect to say 'you could easily do
it using a REGEXP like "("'.  There, REGEXP clearly must be the Lisp
argument, not what you type interactively.  REGEXP presumably always
requires a group subexpression.







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