# HG changeset patch
# User Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>
# Date 1227695106 0
# Node ID 6eac7f3fcebac37a55be4901b7425caed0a0a23c
# Parent  b7a439cfe9c7d7b1365e202bcd411f7e5993cd9b
(Moving by Parens): Clarify that parens inside strings and comments are
ignored, and that the commands assume the starting point isn't in a
string or comment.

diff -r b7a439cfe9c7 -r 6eac7f3fceba doc/emacs/programs.texi
--- a/doc/emacs/programs.texi	Wed Nov 26 10:22:48 2008 +0000
+++ b/doc/emacs/programs.texi	Wed Nov 26 10:25:06 2008 +0000
@@ -765,14 +765,21 @@
 @cindex matching parenthesis and braces, moving to
 @cindex braces, moving across
 @cindex list commands
+
   The Emacs commands for handling parenthetical groupings see nothing
 except parentheses (or whatever characters must balance in the
-language you are working with), and the escape characters that might
-be used to quote those.  They are mainly intended for editing
+language you are working with).  They ignore strings and comments
+(including any parentheses within them) and ignore parentheses quoted
+by an escape character.  They are mainly intended for editing
 programs, but can be useful for editing any text that has parentheses.
 They are sometimes called ``list'' commands because in Lisp these
 groupings are lists.
 
+These commands assume that the starting point is not inside a string
+or a comment.  Sometimes you can invoke them usefully from one of
+these places (for example, when you have a parenthesised clause in a
+comment) but this is unreliable.
+
 @table @kbd
 @item C-M-n
 Move forward over a parenthetical group (@code{forward-list}).
@@ -789,9 +796,8 @@
 @findex forward-list
 @findex backward-list
   The ``list'' commands @kbd{C-M-n} (@code{forward-list}) and
-@kbd{C-M-p} (@code{backward-list}) move over one (or @var{n})
-parenthetical groupings, skipping blithely over any amount of text
-that doesn't include meaningful parentheses (symbols, strings, etc.).
+@kbd{C-M-p} (@code{backward-list}) move forward or backward over one
+(or @var{n}) parenthetical groupings.
 
 @kindex C-M-u
 @findex backward-up-list