Re: `C-b' is backward-char, `left' is left-char - why?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Andy Moreton <address@hidden>
> Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:48:15 +0100
> 
> The help strings for 'left-char and 'backward-char could use some work.
> It is unclear which moves according to screen display order and which
> moves according to buffer character order.

I don't feel a need to invest "some work" on the doc string of
`backward-char', because that function has not changed in ages,
certainly not now.  If its doc string is unclear, then I wonder how
did we all manage to use it all these years.

Of course, I don't object if someone wants to work on that doc string.

Regarding `left-char' and `right-char', the doc string says:

  Depending on the bidirectional context, this may move either
  backward or forward in the buffer.

Believe it or not, but I tried to make it more precise for a long
time, and this is the best I could come up with.  There's a slightly
different variant in the Emacs manual, maybe you will like it better.
But both are not 100% accurate, because explaining what exactly it
does would take a very long text that has no place in a doc string.

If, after playing with the function in bidirectional context, you have
suggestions for describing it better, please propose the change in the
doc string that you think would make it more clear.