Better sorting for TeX-symbol-list

[Gustavo Barros]

Hi All,

I'd like to suggest a small improvement on the way the sorting of 
`TeX-symbol-list' is done by AUCTeX.

`TeX-symbol-list' is sorted by AUCTeX using `TeX-car-string-lessp' which 
uses internally `string-lessp'.  However, `string-lessp' sorts all 
entries starting with an uppercase letter, in a block, before the ones 
starting with a lowercase one.  This is not really ideal for 
`TeX-symbol-list', given some traditional naming conventions of LaTeX. 
First, lowercase macros tend to be user facing more frequently used 
ones, so it would make sense they were sorted first. Second the common 
idiom of `\macro', with a `\Macro' version for start of sentence use, 
also does not work that well. Again, `\macro' is probably used more 
frequently.  Furthermore, ideally these two should be next to each other 
on the list, and they are currently far apart. Considering the 
popularity of vertical completion systems and the common use of 
case-fold this complicates unnecessarily the task. If you are looking 
for, say, `\parencite', some typing might grant you sufficient narrowing 
down of the list. But if you are looking for a short named macro (the 
ones thus named precisely to be easy to reach) you may have a harder 
time. Example, acronym macros, say, `\ac'.

I've been using `string-collate-lessp' instead of `string-lessp' in 
`TeX-car-string-lessp' for some time now with much better results.

Best regards,
Gustavo.