# HG changeset patch # User Chong Yidong # Date 1235699042 0 # Node ID c3952d76db88b2de84cb2c00c992eb5ed14be019 # Parent f3998765e5310a8f2f452b833ba1e78f08240b97 (General Escape Syntax): Update explanation of unicode escape syntax. diff -r f3998765e531 -r c3952d76db88 doc/lispref/objects.texi --- a/doc/lispref/objects.texi Fri Feb 27 01:42:47 2009 +0000 +++ b/doc/lispref/objects.texi Fri Feb 27 01:44:02 2009 +0000 @@ -346,18 +346,19 @@ @subsubsection General Escape Syntax In addition to the specific escape sequences for special important -control characters, Emacs provides general categories of escape syntax -that you can use to specify non-ASCII text characters. +control characters, Emacs provides several types of escape syntax that +you can use to specify non-ASCII text characters. @cindex unicode character escape - For instance, you can specify characters by their Unicode values. + You can specify characters by their Unicode values. @code{?\u@var{nnnn}} represents a character that maps to the Unicode -code point @samp{U+@var{nnnn}}. There is a slightly different syntax -for specifying characters with code points above @code{#xFFFF}; -@code{\U00@var{nnnnnn}} represents the character whose Unicode code -point is @samp{U+@var{nnnnnn}}, if such a character is supported by -Emacs. If the corresponding character is not supported, Emacs signals -an error. +code point @samp{U+@var{nnnn}} (by convention, Unicode code points are +given in hexadecimal). There is a slightly different syntax for +specifying characters with code points higher than +@code{U+@var{ffff}}: @code{\U00@var{nnnnnn}} represents the character +whose code point is @samp{U+@var{nnnnnn}}. The Unicode standard only +defines code points up to @samp{U+@var{10ffff}}, so if you specify a +code point higher than that, Emacs signals an error. This peculiar and inconvenient syntax was adopted for compatibility with other programming languages. Unlike some other languages, Emacs