emacs -Q C-h i, choose Elisp manual, g Mark This text is not clear:
Each buffer has its own value of the mark that is independent of the value of the mark in other buffers. When a buffer is created, the mark exists but does not point anywhere. We consider this state as "the absence of a mark in that buffer." Once the mark "exists" in a buffer, it normally never ceases to exist. The notion of mark existence is unclear here. In a virgin buffer, it says, the mark exists. Yet, in this state the mark is "absent". So, the last sentence presumably wants to talk about lack of "absence" (i.e. presence), rather than existence. Otherwise, it contradicts the first statement that the mark exists from the beginning, as well as its own statement that the mark never ceases to exist (if it has always existed and it always will exist, then "once the mark 'exists'" says nothing useful. The first statement, that the mark exists from the beginning but points nowhere, could be kept as the consistent point of view throughout, but that is not currently the case. In that case, instead of "absence" and then, later, "existence" (presence), we would speak of the mark pointing nowhere and then pointing somewhere. Alternatively, the starting point of the explanation could be changed, to say that in the beginning the mark does not exist. The rest would follow more or less as is, with non-existence/existence replacing absence/presence (no need for two terms, which increases confusion). Either of these approaches would be consistent; the current text is not consistent, and is confusing. My own preference is the second alternative: Don't say that the mark exists from the beginning. We might want to introduce the function `mark' here, saying that when (mark t) returns nil it means that the mark does not yet exist - that is, it indicates that virgin state. Also, quotation marks should not be used in this text, in any case - they add nothing but more confusion. New terms that are defined can be put in a different font (e.g. bold), but should not be between quotation marks. I don't know what the Emacs doc convention is on this. In any case, even if the Emacs doc convention were to quote the defining occurrence of a new term, the sections quoted here should not be quoted. In that case, only "absence" would be quoted. Certainly, "exists" should not be quoted in the last sentence cited. In GNU Emacs 22.0.93.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600) of 2007-01-25 on LENNART-69DE564 X server distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 5.1.2600 configured using `configure --with-gcc (3.4) --cflags -Ic:/g/include' Important settings: value of $LC_ALL: nil value of $LC_COLLATE: nil value of $LC_CTYPE: nil value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil value of $LC_MONETARY: nil value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil value of $LC_TIME: nil value of $LANG: ENU locale-coding-system: cp1252 default-enable-multibyte-characters: t Major mode: Dired by name Minor modes in effect: encoded-kbd-mode: t tooltip-mode: t tool-bar-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t blink-cursor-mode: t unify-8859-on-encoding-mode: t utf-translate-cjk-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t line-number-mode: t Recent input: <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <menu-bar> <help-menu> <re port-emacs-bug> Recent messages: (C:\Emacs-22-2007-01-25\bin\emacs.exe -q --no-site-file --debug-init C:\drews-lisp-20) Loading encoded-kb...done For information about the GNU Project and its goals, type C-h C-p. Loading dired... Loading regexp-opt...done Loading dired...done For information about the GNU Project and its goals, type C-h C-p. Loading emacsbug...done _______________________________________________ emacs-pretest-bug mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-pretest-bug
