emacs: lispref/syntax.texi annotate

author	Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
date	Sat, 24 Dec 1994 05:58:05 +0000 (1994-12-24)
parents	9e44c96dd99d
children	043aedff8710

rev	line source
6552 3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	1 @c --texinfo--
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	2 @c This is part of the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	3 @c Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	4 @c See the file elisp.texi for copying conditions.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	5 @setfilename ../info/syntax
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	6 @node Syntax Tables, Abbrevs, Searching and Matching, Top
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	7 @chapter Syntax Tables
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	8 @cindex parsing
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	9 @cindex syntax table
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	10 @cindex text parsing
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	11
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	12 A @dfn{syntax table} specifies the syntactic textual function of each
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	13 character. This information is used by the parsing commands, the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	14 complex movement commands, and others to determine where words, symbols,
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	15 and other syntactic constructs begin and end. The current syntax table
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	16 controls the meaning of the word motion functions (@pxref{Word Motion})
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	17 and the list motion functions (@pxref{List Motion}) as well as the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	18 functions in this chapter.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	19
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	20 @menu
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	21 * Basics: Syntax Basics. Basic concepts of syntax tables.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	22 * Desc: Syntax Descriptors. How characters are classified.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	23 * Syntax Table Functions:: How to create, examine and alter syntax tables.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	24 * Motion and Syntax:: Moving over characters with certain syntaxes.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	25 * Parsing Expressions:: Parsing balanced expressions
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	26 using the syntax table.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	27 * Standard Syntax Tables:: Syntax tables used by various major modes.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	28 * Syntax Table Internals:: How syntax table information is stored.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	29 @end menu
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	30
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	31 @node Syntax Basics
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	32 @section Syntax Table Concepts
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	33
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	34 @ifinfo
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	35 A @dfn{syntax table} provides Emacs with the information that
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	36 determines the syntactic use of each character in a buffer. This
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	37 information is used by the parsing commands, the complex movement
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	38 commands, and others to determine where words, symbols, and other
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	39 syntactic constructs begin and end. The current syntax table controls
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	40 the meaning of the word motion functions (@pxref{Word Motion}) and the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	41 list motion functions (@pxref{List Motion}) as well as the functions in
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	42 this chapter.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	43 @end ifinfo
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	44
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	45 A syntax table is a vector of 256 elements; it contains one entry for
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	46 each of the 256 @sc{ASCII} characters of an 8-bit byte. Each element is
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	47 an integer that encodes the syntax of the character in question.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	48
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	49 Syntax tables are used only for moving across text, not for the Emacs
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	50 Lisp reader. Emacs Lisp uses built-in syntactic rules when reading Lisp
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	51 expressions, and these rules cannot be changed.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	52
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	53 Each buffer has its own major mode, and each major mode has its own
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	54 idea of the syntactic class of various characters. For example, in Lisp
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	55 mode, the character @samp{;} begins a comment, but in C mode, it
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	56 terminates a statement. To support these variations, Emacs makes the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	57 choice of syntax table local to each buffer. Typically, each major
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	58 mode has its own syntax table and installs that table in each buffer
8469 9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	59 that uses that mode. Changing this table alters the syntax in all
6552 3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	60 those buffers as well as in any buffers subsequently put in that mode.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	61 Occasionally several similar modes share one syntax table.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	62 @xref{Example Major Modes}, for an example of how to set up a syntax
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	63 table.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	64
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	65 A syntax table can inherit the data for some characters from the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	66 standard syntax table, while specifying other characters itself. The
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	67 ``inherit'' syntax class means ``inherit this character's syntax from
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	68 the standard syntax table.'' Most major modes' syntax tables inherit
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	69 the syntax of character codes 0 through 31 and 128 through 255. This is
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	70 useful with character sets such as ISO Latin-1 that have additional
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	71 alphabetic characters in the range 128 to 255. Just changing the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	72 standard syntax for these characters affects all major modes.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	73
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	74 @defun syntax-table-p object
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	75 This function returns @code{t} if @var{object} is a vector of length 256
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	76 elements. This means that the vector may be a syntax table. However,
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	77 according to this test, any vector of length 256 is considered to be a
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	78 syntax table, no matter what its contents.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	79 @end defun
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	80
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	81 @node Syntax Descriptors
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	82 @section Syntax Descriptors
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	83 @cindex syntax classes
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	84
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	85 This section describes the syntax classes and flags that denote the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	86 syntax of a character, and how they are represented as a @dfn{syntax
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	87 descriptor}, which is a Lisp string that you pass to
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	88 @code{modify-syntax-entry} to specify the desired syntax.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	89
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	90 Emacs defines a number of @dfn{syntax classes}. Each syntax table
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	91 puts each character into one class. There is no necessary relationship
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	92 between the class of a character in one syntax table and its class in
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	93 any other table.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	94
8469 9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	95 Each class is designated by a mnemonic character, which serves as the
6552 3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	96 name of the class when you need to specify a class. Usually the
8469 9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	97 designator character is one that is frequently in that class; however,
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	98 its meaning as a designator is unvarying and independent of what syntax
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	99 that character currently has.
6552 3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	100
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	101 @cindex syntax descriptor
8469 9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	102 A syntax descriptor is a Lisp string that specifies a syntax class, a
6552 3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	103 matching character (used only for the parenthesis classes) and flags.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	104 The first character is the designator for a syntax class. The second
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	105 character is the character to match; if it is unused, put a space there.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	106 Then come the characters for any desired flags. If no matching
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	107 character or flags are needed, one character is sufficient.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	108
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	109 For example, the descriptor for the character @samp{*} in C mode is
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	110 @samp{@w{. 23}} (i.e., punctuation, matching character slot unused,
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	111 second character of a comment-starter, first character of an
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	112 comment-ender), and the entry for @samp{/} is @samp{@w{. 14}} (i.e.,
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	113 punctuation, matching character slot unused, first character of a
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	114 comment-starter, second character of a comment-ender).
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	115
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	116 @menu
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	117 * Syntax Class Table:: Table of syntax classes.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	118 * Syntax Flags:: Additional flags each character can have.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	119 @end menu
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	120
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	121 @node Syntax Class Table
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	122 @subsection Table of Syntax Classes
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	123
8469 9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	124 Here is a table of syntax classes, the characters that stand for them,
6552 3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	125 their meanings, and examples of their use.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	126
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	127 @deffn {Syntax class} @w{whitespace character}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	128 @dfn{Whitespace characters} (designated with @w{@samp{@ }} or @samp{-})
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	129 separate symbols and words from each other. Typically, whitespace
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	130 characters have no other syntactic significance, and multiple whitespace
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	131 characters are syntactically equivalent to a single one. Space, tab,
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	132 newline and formfeed are almost always classified as whitespace.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	133 @end deffn
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	134
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	135 @deffn {Syntax class} @w{word constituent}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	136 @dfn{Word constituents} (designated with @samp{w}) are parts of normal
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	137 English words and are typically used in variable and command names in
8469 9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	138 programs. All upper- and lower-case letters, and the digits, are typically
6552 3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	139 word constituents.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	140 @end deffn
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	141
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	142 @deffn {Syntax class} @w{symbol constituent}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	143 @dfn{Symbol constituents} (designated with @samp{_}) are the extra
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	144 characters that are used in variable and command names along with word
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	145 constituents. For example, the symbol constituents class is used in
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	146 Lisp mode to indicate that certain characters may be part of symbol
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	147 names even though they are not part of English words. These characters
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	148 are @samp{$&*+-_<>}. In standard C, the only non-word-constituent
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	149 character that is valid in symbols is underscore (@samp{_}).
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	150 @end deffn
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	151
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	152 @deffn {Syntax class} @w{punctuation character}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	153 @dfn{Punctuation characters} (@samp{.}) are those characters that are
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	154 used as punctuation in English, or are used in some way in a programming
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	155 language to separate symbols from one another. Most programming
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	156 language modes, including Emacs Lisp mode, have no characters in this
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	157 class since the few characters that are not symbol or word constituents
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	158 all have other uses.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	159 @end deffn
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	160
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	161 @deffn {Syntax class} @w{open parenthesis character}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	162 @deffnx {Syntax class} @w{close parenthesis character}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	163 @cindex parenthesis syntax
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	164 Open and close @dfn{parenthesis characters} are characters used in
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	165 dissimilar pairs to surround sentences or expressions. Such a grouping
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	166 is begun with an open parenthesis character and terminated with a close.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	167 Each open parenthesis character matches a particular close parenthesis
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	168 character, and vice versa. Normally, Emacs indicates momentarily the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	169 matching open parenthesis when you insert a close parenthesis.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	170 @xref{Blinking}.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	171
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	172 The class of open parentheses is designated with @samp{(}, and that of
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	173 close parentheses with @samp{)}.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	174
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	175 In English text, and in C code, the parenthesis pairs are @samp{()},
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	176 @samp{[]}, and @samp{@{@}}. In Emacs Lisp, the delimiters for lists and
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	177 vectors (@samp{()} and @samp{[]}) are classified as parenthesis
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	178 characters.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	179 @end deffn
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	180
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	181 @deffn {Syntax class} @w{string quote}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	182 @dfn{String quote characters} (designated with @samp{"}) are used in
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	183 many languages, including Lisp and C, to delimit string constants. The
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	184 same string quote character appears at the beginning and the end of a
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	185 string. Such quoted strings do not nest.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	186
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	187 The parsing facilities of Emacs consider a string as a single token.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	188 The usual syntactic meanings of the characters in the string are
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	189 suppressed.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	190
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	191 The Lisp modes have two string quote characters: double-quote (@samp{"})
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	192 and vertical bar (@samp{\|}). @samp{\|} is not used in Emacs Lisp, but it
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	193 is used in Common Lisp. C also has two string quote characters:
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	194 double-quote for strings, and single-quote (@samp{'}) for character
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	195 constants.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	196
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	197 English text has no string quote characters because English is not a
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	198 programming language. Although quotation marks are used in English,
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	199 we do not want them to turn off the usual syntactic properties of
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	200 other characters in the quotation.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	201 @end deffn
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	202
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	203 @deffn {Syntax class} @w{escape}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	204 An @dfn{escape character} (designated with @samp{\}) starts an escape
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	205 sequence such as is used in C string and character constants. The
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	206 character @samp{\} belongs to this class in both C and Lisp. (In C, it
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	207 is used thus only inside strings, but it turns out to cause no trouble
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	208 to treat it this way throughout C code.)
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	209
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	210 Characters in this class count as part of words if
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	211 @code{words-include-escapes} is non-@code{nil}. @xref{Word Motion}.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	212 @end deffn
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	213
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	214 @deffn {Syntax class} @w{character quote}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	215 A @dfn{character quote character} (designated with @samp{/}) quotes the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	216 following character so that it loses its normal syntactic meaning. This
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	217 differs from an escape character in that only the character immediately
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	218 following is ever affected.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	219
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	220 Characters in this class count as part of words if
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	221 @code{words-include-escapes} is non-@code{nil}. @xref{Word Motion}.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	222
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	223 This class is not currently used in any standard Emacs modes.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	224 @end deffn
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	225
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	226 @deffn {Syntax class} @w{paired delimiter}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	227 @dfn{Paired delimiter characters} (designated with @samp{$}) are like
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	228 string quote characters except that the syntactic properties of the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	229 characters between the delimiters are not suppressed. Only @TeX{} mode
8469 9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	230 uses a paired delimiter presently---the @samp{$} that both enters and
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	231 leaves math mode.
6552 3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	232 @end deffn
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	233
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	234 @deffn {Syntax class} @w{expression prefix}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	235 An @dfn{expression prefix operator} (designated with @samp{'}) is used
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	236 for syntactic operators that are part of an expression if they appear
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	237 next to one. These characters in Lisp include the apostrophe, @samp{'}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	238 (used for quoting), the comma, @samp{,} (used in macros), and @samp{#}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	239 (used in the read syntax for certain data types).
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	240 @end deffn
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	241
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	242 @deffn {Syntax class} @w{comment starter}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	243 @deffnx {Syntax class} @w{comment ender}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	244 @cindex comment syntax
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	245 The @dfn{comment starter} and @dfn{comment ender} characters are used in
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	246 various languages to delimit comments. These classes are designated
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	247 with @samp{<} and @samp{>}, respectively.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	248
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	249 English text has no comment characters. In Lisp, the semicolon
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	250 (@samp{;}) starts a comment and a newline or formfeed ends one.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	251 @end deffn
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	252
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	253 @deffn {Syntax class} @w{inherit}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	254 This syntax class does not specify a syntax. It says to look in the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	255 standard syntax table to find the syntax of this character. The
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	256 designator for this syntax code is @samp{@@}.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	257 @end deffn
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	258
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	259 @node Syntax Flags
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	260 @subsection Syntax Flags
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	261 @cindex syntax flags
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	262
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	263 In addition to the classes, entries for characters in a syntax table
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	264 can include flags. There are six possible flags, represented by the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	265 characters @samp{1}, @samp{2}, @samp{3}, @samp{4}, @samp{b} and
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	266 @samp{p}.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	267
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	268 All the flags except @samp{p} are used to describe multi-character
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	269 comment delimiters. The digit flags indicate that a character can
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	270 @emph{also} be part of a comment sequence, in addition to the syntactic
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	271 properties associated with its character class. The flags are
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	272 independent of the class and each other for the sake of characters such
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	273 as @samp{*} in C mode, which is a punctuation character, @emph{and} the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	274 second character of a start-of-comment sequence (@samp{/*}), @emph{and}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	275 the first character of an end-of-comment sequence (@samp{*/}).
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	276
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	277 The flags for a character @var{c} are:
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	278
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	279 @itemize @bullet
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	280 @item
8469 9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	281 @samp{1} means @var{c} is the start of a two-character comment-start
6552 3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	282 sequence.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	283
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	284 @item
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	285 @samp{2} means @var{c} is the second character of such a sequence.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	286
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	287 @item
8469 9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	288 @samp{3} means @var{c} is the start of a two-character comment-end
6552 3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	289 sequence.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	290
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	291 @item
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	292 @samp{4} means @var{c} is the second character of such a sequence.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	293
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	294 @item
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	295 @c Emacs 19 feature
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	296 @samp{b} means that @var{c} as a comment delimiter belongs to the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	297 alternative ``b'' comment style.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	298
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	299 Emacs supports two comment styles simultaneously in any one syntax
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	300 table. This is for the sake of C++. Each style of comment syntax has
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	301 its own comment-start sequence and its own comment-end sequence. Each
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	302 comment must stick to one style or the other; thus, if it starts with
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	303 the comment-start sequence of style ``b'', it must also end with the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	304 comment-end sequence of style ``b''.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	305
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	306 The two comment-start sequences must begin with the same character; only
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	307 the second character may differ. Mark the second character of the
8469 9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	308 ``b''-style comment-start sequence with the @samp{b} flag.
6552 3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	309
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	310 A comment-end sequence (one or two characters) applies to the ``b''
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	311 style if its first character has the @samp{b} flag set; otherwise, it
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	312 applies to the ``a'' style.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	313
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	314 The appropriate comment syntax settings for C++ are as follows:
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	315
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	316 @table @asis
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	317 @item @samp{/}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	318 @samp{124b}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	319 @item @samp{*}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	320 @samp{23}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	321 @item newline
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	322 @samp{>b}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	323 @end table
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	324
8469 9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	325 This defines four comment-delimiting sequences:
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	326
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	327 @table @asis
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	328 @item @samp{/*}
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	329 This is a comment-start sequence for ``a'' style because the
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	330 second character, @samp{*}, does not have the @samp{b} flag.
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	331
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	332 @item @samp{//}
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	333 This is a comment-start sequence for ``b'' style because the second
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	334 character, @samp{/}, does have the @samp{b} flag.
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	335
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	336 @item @samp{*/}
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	337 This is a comment-end sequence for ``a'' style because the first
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	338 character, @samp{*}, does not have the @samp{b} flag
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	339
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	340 @item newline
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	341 This is a comment-end sequence for ``b'' style, because the newline
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	342 character has the @samp{b} flag.
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	343 @end table
6552 3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	344
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	345 @item
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	346 @c Emacs 19 feature
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	347 @samp{p} identifies an additional ``prefix character'' for Lisp syntax.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	348 These characters are treated as whitespace when they appear between
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	349 expressions. When they appear within an expression, they are handled
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	350 according to their usual syntax codes.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	351
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	352 The function @code{backward-prefix-chars} moves back over these
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	353 characters, as well as over characters whose primary syntax class is
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	354 prefix (@samp{'}). @xref{Motion and Syntax}.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	355 @end itemize
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	356
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	357 @node Syntax Table Functions
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	358 @section Syntax Table Functions
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	359
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	360 In this section we describe functions for creating, accessing and
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	361 altering syntax tables.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	362
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	363 @defun make-syntax-table
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	364 This function creates a new syntax table. Character codes 0 through
8469 9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	365 31 and 128 through 255 are set up to inherit from the standard syntax
6552 3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	366 table. The other character codes are set up by copying what the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	367 standard syntax table says about them.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	368
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	369 Most major mode syntax tables are created in this way.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	370 @end defun
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	371
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	372 @defun copy-syntax-table &optional table
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	373 This function constructs a copy of @var{table} and returns it. If
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	374 @var{table} is not supplied (or is @code{nil}), it returns a copy of the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	375 current syntax table. Otherwise, an error is signaled if @var{table} is
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	376 not a syntax table.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	377 @end defun
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	378
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	379 @deffn Command modify-syntax-entry char syntax-descriptor &optional table
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	380 This function sets the syntax entry for @var{char} according to
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	381 @var{syntax-descriptor}. The syntax is changed only for @var{table},
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	382 which defaults to the current buffer's syntax table, and not in any
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	383 other syntax table. The argument @var{syntax-descriptor} specifies the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	384 desired syntax; this is a string beginning with a class designator
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	385 character, and optionally containing a matching character and flags as
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	386 well. @xref{Syntax Descriptors}.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	387
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	388 This function always returns @code{nil}. The old syntax information in
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	389 the table for this character is discarded.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	390
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	391 An error is signaled if the first character of the syntax descriptor is not
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	392 one of the twelve syntax class designator characters. An error is also
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	393 signaled if @var{char} is not a character.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	394
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	395 @example
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	396 @group
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	397 @exdent @r{Examples:}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	398
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	399 ;; @r{Put the space character in class whitespace.}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	400 (modify-syntax-entry ?\ " ")
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	401 @result{} nil
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	402 @end group
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	403
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	404 @group
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	405 ;; @r{Make @samp{$} an open parenthesis character,}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	406 ;; @r{with @samp{^} as its matching close.}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	407 (modify-syntax-entry ?$ "(^")
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	408 @result{} nil
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	409 @end group
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	410
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	411 @group
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	412 ;; @r{Make @samp{^} a close parenthesis character,}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	413 ;; @r{with @samp{$} as its matching open.}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	414 (modify-syntax-entry ?^ ")$")
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	415 @result{} nil
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	416 @end group
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	417
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	418 @group
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	419 ;; @r{Make @samp{/} a punctuation character,}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	420 ;; @r{the first character of a start-comment sequence,}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	421 ;; @r{and the second character of an end-comment sequence.}
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	422 ;; @r{This is used in C mode.}
8469 9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	423 (modify-syntax-entry ?/ ". 14")
6552 3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	424 @result{} nil
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	425 @end group
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	426 @end example
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	427 @end deffn
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	428
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	429 @defun char-syntax character
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	430 This function returns the syntax class of @var{character}, represented
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	431 by its mnemonic designator character. This @emph{only} returns the
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	432 class, not any matching parenthesis or flags.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	433
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	434 An error is signaled if @var{char} is not a character.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	435
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	436 The following examples apply to C mode. The first example shows that
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	437 the syntax class of space is whitespace (represented by a space). The
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	438 second example shows that the syntax of @samp{/} is punctuation. This
8469 9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	439 does not show the fact that it is also part of comment-start and -end
9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	440 sequences. The third example shows that open parenthesis is in the class
6552 3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	441 of open parentheses. This does not show the fact that it has a matching
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	442 character, @samp{)}.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	443
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	444 @example
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	445 @group
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	446 (char-to-string (char-syntax ?\ ))
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	447 @result{} " "
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	448 @end group
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	449
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	450 @group
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	451 (char-to-string (char-syntax ?/))
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	452 @result{} "."
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	453 @end group
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	454
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	455 @group
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	456 (char-to-string (char-syntax ?\())
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	457 @result{} "("
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	458 @end group
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	459 @end example
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	460 @end defun
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	461
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	462 @defun set-syntax-table table
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	463 This function makes @var{table} the syntax table for the current buffer.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	464 It returns @var{table}.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	465 @end defun
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	466
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	467 @defun syntax-table
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	468 This function returns the current syntax table, which is the table for
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	469 the current buffer.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	470 @end defun
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	471
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	472 @node Motion and Syntax
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	473 @section Motion and Syntax
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	474
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	475 This section describes functions for moving across characters in
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	476 certain syntax classes. None of these functions exists in Emacs
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	477 version 18 or earlier.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	478
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	479 @defun skip-syntax-forward syntaxes &optional limit
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	480 This function moves point forward across characters having syntax classes
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	481 mentioned in @var{syntaxes}. It stops when it encounters the end of
8469 9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	482 the buffer, or position @var{limit} (if specified), or a character it is
6552 3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	483 not supposed to skip.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	484 @ignore @c may want to change this.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	485 The return value is the distance traveled, which is a nonnegative
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	486 integer.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	487 @end ignore
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	488 @end defun
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	489
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	490 @defun skip-syntax-backward syntaxes &optional limit
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	491 This function moves point backward across characters whose syntax
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	492 classes are mentioned in @var{syntaxes}. It stops when it encounters
8469 9e44c96dd99d entered into RCS Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: 6552 diff changeset	493 the beginning of the buffer, or position @var{limit} (if specified), or a
6552 3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	494 character it is not supposed to skip.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	495 @ignore @c may want to change this.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	496 The return value indicates the distance traveled. It is an integer that
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	497 is zero or less.
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	498 @end ignore
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	499 @end defun
3b84ed22f747 Initial revision Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> parents: diff changeset	500

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