5 ms·

My Emacs is reporting that `count-words` was "Probably introduced at or before Emacs version 24.1." but good post regardless.

by smcn 4y ago

michaelhoffman 4y ago
> *now also reports the number of sentences* Emphasis added.
- abudabi123 4y ago
  WOW That means Emacs has the smarts now to decide where a full stop ends a sentence and can follow up with double spacing.
  - mbork_pl 4y ago
    > The sentence commands assume that you follow the American typist’s convention of putting two spaces at the end of a sentence. That is, a sentence ends wherever there is a ‘.’, ‘?’ or ‘!’ followed by the end of a line or two spaces, with any number of ‘)’, ‘]’, ‘'’, or ‘"’ characters allowed in between. A sentence also begins or ends wherever a paragraph begins or ends. It is useful to follow this convention, because it allows the Emacs sentence commands to distinguish between periods that end a sentence and periods that indicate abbreviations. (https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Sentences.html https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Se...)
    - goosedragons 4y ago
      That's a good convention for people taught typing on a typewriter but pretty bad for younger folks.
      - Wildgoose 4y ago
        Disagree. I wasn't taught on a typewriter, (although my mother did teach typing), but any plain text will be aided by that convention. Yes, it's not necessary with justified text when using (for example) TeX. But seeing a solid wall of text in a long paragraph with no hints as to its sentence structure other than a tiny "."? No thanks.
        MadcapJake 4y ago
        Perhaps this is true but the convention is no longer in use pedagogically.
    - tmtvl 4y ago
      Of course Emacs has a configuration option you can toggle which disables the need for a double space after a sentence.
jchmrt 4y ago
I think the author means that count-words already existed, but only reported words and characters. Now it also reports the amount of sentences.
- smcn 4y ago
  That's entirely my bad. Reread it and it was obvious what was being said!
- daniel-cussen 4y ago
gumby 4y ago
That's odd, as Emacs had this function long before being ported to C/elisp, i.e. over 40 years ago.
- michaelhoffman 4y ago
  Over 40 years ago is definitely "at or before" Emacs 24.1. Specifically before. As far as I can tell, the "probably introduced at or before" info comes from finding a symbol's first appearance in NEWS. So if there were no changes to `count-words` between Emacs 1 and 24, this is what you'd get.

My Emacs is reporting that `count-words` was "Probably introduced at or before Emacs version 24.1." but good post regardless.

by smcn 4y ago

My Emacs is reporting that `count-words` was "Probably introduced at or before Emacs version 24.1." but good post regardless.

michaelhoffman 4y ago

> *now also reports the number of sentences* Emphasis added.

abudabi123 4y ago
WOW That means Emacs has the smarts now to decide where a full stop ends a sentence and can follow up with double spacing.
- mbork_pl 4y ago
  > The sentence commands assume that you follow the American typist’s convention of putting two spaces at the end of a sentence. That is, a sentence ends wherever there is a ‘.’, ‘?’ or ‘!’ followed by the end of a line or two spaces, with any number of ‘)’, ‘]’, ‘'’, or ‘"’ characters allowed in between. A sentence also begins or ends wherever a paragraph begins or ends. It is useful to follow this convention, because it allows the Emacs sentence commands to distinguish between periods that end a sentence and periods that indicate abbreviations. (https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Sentences.html https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Se...)
  - goosedragons 4y ago
    That's a good convention for people taught typing on a typewriter but pretty bad for younger folks.
    - Wildgoose 4y ago
      Disagree. I wasn't taught on a typewriter, (although my mother did teach typing), but any plain text will be aided by that convention. Yes, it's not necessary with justified text when using (for example) TeX. But seeing a solid wall of text in a long paragraph with no hints as to its sentence structure other than a tiny "."? No thanks.
      - MadcapJake 4y ago
        Perhaps this is true but the convention is no longer in use pedagogically.
  - tmtvl 4y ago
    Of course Emacs has a configuration option you can toggle which disables the need for a double space after a sentence.

jchmrt 4y ago

I think the author means that count-words already existed, but only reported words and characters. Now it also reports the amount of sentences.

smcn 4y ago
That's entirely my bad. Reread it and it was obvious what was being said!
daniel-cussen 4y ago

gumby 4y ago

That's odd, as Emacs had this function long before being ported to C/elisp, i.e. over 40 years ago.

michaelhoffman 4y ago
Over 40 years ago is definitely "at or before" Emacs 24.1. Specifically before. As far as I can tell, the "probably introduced at or before" info comes from finding a symbol's first appearance in NEWS. So if there were no changes to `count-words` between Emacs 1 and 24, this is what you'd get.