comparison man/programs.texi @ 74697:3c81cd2d3939

programs.texi (Left Margin Paren): Remove the bit which says that CC Mode sets open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start to nil. Discuss some of the issues of setting this option to nil.

74696:9068e737a4b6

@subsection Left Margin Convention

@cindex open-parenthesis in leftmost column
@cindex ( in leftmost column
  Emacs assumes by default that any opening delimiter found at the
left margin is the start of a top-level definition, or defun.  You can
override this default by setting this user option:

@defvar open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start
If this user option is set to @code{t} (the default), opening
parentheses or braces at column zero always start defuns.  When it's
@code{nil}, defuns are found by searching for parens or braces at the
outermost level.  Some major modes, including C and related modes, set
@code{open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start} buffer-locally to
@code{nil}
@end defvar

  In modes where @code{open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start} is
@code{t}, @strong{don't put an opening delimiter at the left margin
unless it is a defun start}.  For instance, never put an
open-parenthesis at the left margin in a Lisp file unless it is the
start of a top-level list.

  If you don't follow this convention, not only will you have trouble
when you explicitly use the commands for motion by defuns; other
features that use them will also give you trouble.  This includes
the indentation commands (@pxref{Program Indent}) and Font Lock
mode (@pxref{Font Lock}).

  The most likely problem case is when you want an opening delimiter
at the start of a line inside a string.  To avoid trouble, put an
escape character (@samp{\}, in Emacs Lisp, @samp{/} in some other Lisp
dialects) before the opening delimiter.  This will not affect the
contents of the string, but will prevent that opening delimiter from
starting a defun.  Here's an example:

@example
  (insert "Foo:
\(bar)
")
@end example

  To help you catch violations of this convention, Font Lock mode
highlights confusing opening delimiters (those that ought to be
quoted) in bold red.

  In the earliest days, the original Emacs found defuns by moving
upward a level of parentheses or braces until there were no more
levels to go up.  This always required scanning all the way back to
the beginning of the buffer, even for a small function.  To speed up

preprocessor commands.

@table @kbd
@item C-c C-@key{DEL}
@itemx C-c @key{DEL}
@findex c-hungry-backspace
@kindex C-c C-@key{DEL} (C Mode)
@kindex C-c @key{DEL} (C Mode)
@code{c-hungry-backspace}---Delete the entire block of whitespace
preceding point.

@item C-c C-d
@itemx C-c C-@key{DELETE}
@itemx C-c @key{DELETE}

74697:3c81cd2d3939

@subsection Left Margin Convention

@cindex open-parenthesis in leftmost column
@cindex ( in leftmost column
  Emacs assumes by default that any opening delimiter found at the
left margin is the start of a top-level definition, or defun.
Therefore, @strong{don't put an opening delimiter at the left margin
unless it should have that significance}.  For instance, never put an
open-parenthesis at the left margin in a Lisp file unless it is the
start of a top-level list.  

  If you don't follow this convention, not only will you have trouble
when you explicitly use the commands for motion by defuns; other
features that use them will also give you trouble.  This includes
the indentation commands (@pxref{Program Indent}) and Font Lock
mode (@pxref{Font Lock}).

  The most likely problem case is when you want an opening delimiter
at the start of a line inside a string.  To avoid trouble, put an
escape character (@samp{\}, in C and Emacs Lisp, @samp{/} in some
other Lisp dialects) before the opening delimiter.  This will not
affect the contents of the string, but will prevent that opening
delimiter from starting a defun.  Here's an example:

@example
  (insert "Foo:
\(bar)
")
@end example

  To help you catch violations of this convention, Font Lock mode
highlights confusing opening delimiters (those that ought to be
quoted) in bold red.

If you need to override this convention, you can so by setting this
user option:

@defvar open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start
If this user option is set to @code{t} (the default), opening
parentheses or braces at column zero always start defuns.  When it's
@code{nil}, defuns are found by searching for parens or braces at the
outermost level.
@end defvar

  Usually, you shouldn't need to set
@code{open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start} to @code{nil}.  However,
if your buffer contains parentheses or braces in column zero which
don't start defuns and this confuses Emacs, it sometimes helps to set
the option to @code{nil}.  Be aware, though, that this will make
scrolling and display in large buffers quite sluggish, and that
parentheses and braces must be correctly matched throughout the buffer
for it to work properly.

  In the earliest days, the original Emacs found defuns by moving
upward a level of parentheses or braces until there were no more
levels to go up.  This always required scanning all the way back to
the beginning of the buffer, even for a small function.  To speed up

preprocessor commands.

@table @kbd
@item C-c C-@key{DEL}
@itemx C-c @key{DEL}
@findex c-hungry-delete-backwards
@kindex C-c C-@key{DEL} (C Mode)
@kindex C-c @key{DEL} (C Mode)
@code{c-hungry-delete-backwards}---Delete the entire block of whitespace
preceding point.

@item C-c C-d
@itemx C-c C-@key{DELETE}
@itemx C-c @key{DELETE}