Re: Tick Reduction

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>> And, of course, we could also consider using proportional fonts for the
>> non-code prose bits:
>
> On a docstring like that of `pcase` the result is a bit poor.

This bit?

---
Each PATTERN expands, in essence, to a predicate to call
on EXPVAL.  When the return value of that call is non-nil,
PATTERN matches.  PATTERN can take one of the forms:

  _                matches anything.
  \\='VAL             matches if EXPVAL is `equal' to VAL.
  KEYWORD          shorthand for \\='KEYWORD
  INTEGER          shorthand for \\='INTEGER
...
---

Yes, we have to develop some syntax to mark up tabular data, and Stefan
K suggested using the Org syntax, i.e.,

|  _               | matches anything.
|  \\='VAL         |    matches if EXPVAL is `equal' to VAL.
|  KEYWORD         | shorthand for \\='KEYWORD
|  INTEGER         | shorthand for \\='INTEGER

which seems like a good idea to me.

I think the number of doc strings that need this isn't huge, though.

> Also, it makes line lengths vary even more; as a result, it ends up
> crying for re-filling the text.  Especially since, while most lines end
> up shorter when displayed with proportional fonts, occasionally some
> lines end up longer, causing line-wrapping.

(I think we've already covered this bit, but to recap: In practice, it's
not a big problem, and to re-fill doc strings, we'd have to rewrite a
large number of them, so it's not practical.)

> Clearly, we would benefit from a formal markup language (and one which
> includes some way to align text into columns).  Note that for the column
> display, I think we actually need an extension to the current `space`
> thingy on the `display` property which is able to align columns even
> without the buffer's data telling the redisplay at which precise pixel
> position it should be aligned (instead it should just add space until
> the columns are visually aligned).

Hm...  I don't think we need anything new here?  The thing that displays
the doc string can figure out the pixel positions -- it's what shr does
with tables.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no