Suggestion for tiniest of manual changes

Suggestion for tiniest of manual changes

[Peter Tomhas]

Not being a lisp programmer, I stubbed my toe on section "9.1.3.2
Template expansion" of the manual. I was trying to use %\1, %\2 etc,
following the instructions in the second last item of the big table:
where it says:

%\1 ... %\N   Insert the text entered at the Nth %^{prompt}, where N is
                    a number, starting from 1.

I inserted %\1 into my template and it failed to work. After a wee
while of testing what might be wrong, I guessed that I needed to
backslash-escape the backslash, and it worked. Because that escaping
is both: a. made necessary (as I understand it) by the %\N  being in a
string; and b. only /ever/ invoked within a string, at first I
considered this to be a documentation bug, and I reckoned the entry
should start, "%\\1 ... %\\N". However, it was explained to me on
Reddit[1], that anyone who knows lisp would know to add the escape,
and that having %\\1 in the documentation could cause them to try to
use %\\\\1.

Sounds reasonable, but I still think at least a footnote could help.
As far as I can make out, the current texinfo is as follows:

%\1 @dots{} %\N @r{Insert the text entered at the Nth
%^@{@var{prompt}@}, where @code{N} is}
            @r{a number, starting from 1.}

Perhaps that could become something like (apologies for poorly
formatted texinfo):

%\1 @dots{} %\N @r{Insert the text entered at the Nth
%^@{@var{prompt}@}, where @code{N} is}
            @r{a number, starting from 1.@footnote{As is standard in elisp,
to insert a backslash character within a string, as is required here, it is
necessary to escape it with another backslash. So to insert %\1, %\2 and so
on, one should actually insert %\\1, %\\2, etc.}}

pt

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/orgmode/comments/6uksnz/orgcapture_in_templates_n_needs_to_be_n/dltsth0/n

Re: Suggestion for tiniest of manual changes

[Nicolas Goaziou]

Hello,

Peter Tomhas <peter.tomhas@gmail.com> writes:

> Perhaps that could become something like (apologies for poorly
> formatted texinfo):
>
> %\1 @dots{} %\N @r{Insert the text entered at the Nth
> %^@{@var{prompt}@}, where @code{N} is}
>             @r{a number, starting from 1.@footnote{As is standard in elisp,
> to insert a backslash character within a string, as is required here, it is
> necessary to escape it with another backslash. So to insert %\1, %\2 and so
> on, one should actually insert %\\1, %\\2, etc.}}

I added a footnote about it. Thank you.

Regards,

-- 
Nicolas Goaziou