Improve wording about m4 quote characters.

* doc/autoconf.texi (Autoconf Language): Autoconf quote characters
come from m4sugar, not raw m4.
(Active Characters): Mention that it is m4sugar which changes
quotes from `' to [].
* THANKS: Update.
Suggested by Josef Vukovic.

Signed-off-by: Eric Blake <ebb9@byu.net>

diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 528ff2b0e15088e4dbbbfe903d69f89228ab72f2..205c5350932f21bcc4998545f786a0289d13bf80 100644 (file)
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
+2009-12-12  Eric Blake  <ebb9@byu.net>
+
+       Improve wording about m4 quote characters.
+       * doc/autoconf.texi (Autoconf Language): Autoconf quote characters
+       come from m4sugar, not raw m4.
+       (Active Characters): Mention that it is m4sugar which changes
+       quotes from `' to [].
+       * THANKS: Update.
+       Suggested by Josef Vukovic.
+
 2009-12-12  Ralf Wildenhues  <Ralf.Wildenhues@gmx.de>
 
        Revert "Improve AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIRS a bit." to fix shtool usage.

diff --git a/THANKS b/THANKS
index 623a2978b737e3a388c9f3c1c3de9ab2b242e453..a7afaf15c27555924de3afa05b2294c6682057c5 100644 (file)
--- a/THANKS
+++ b/THANKS
@@ -193,6 +193,7 @@ John R. Cary                cary@txcorp.com
 John W. Eaton               jwe@bevo.che.wisc.edu
 Jonathan Kamens             jik@kamens.brookline.ma.us
 Josef Tran                  josef@timetrackertechnology.com
+Josef Vukovic               josefvukovic@googlemail.com
 Joseph S. Myers             jsm28@cam.ac.uk
 Jules Colding               colding@42tools.com
 Julian Onions               j.onions@nexor.co.uk

diff --git a/doc/autoconf.texi b/doc/autoconf.texi
index 3144610aefb2e838bf8648c1baf171be9b4ec45f..76bb279d4042990ba5d22e0f6ae36c0140dd8da2 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/autoconf.texi
+++ b/doc/autoconf.texi
@@ -1133,12 +1133,13 @@ quotation.
 
 When calling macros that take arguments, there must not be any white
 space between the macro name and the open parenthesis.  Arguments should
-be enclosed within the M4 quote characters @samp{[} and @samp{]}, and be
+be enclosed within the quote characters @samp{[} and @samp{]}, and be
 separated by commas.  Any leading blanks or newlines in arguments are ignored,
 unless they are quoted.  You should always quote an argument that
 might contain a macro name, comma, parenthesis, or a leading blank or
 newline.  This rule applies recursively for every macro
-call, including macros called from other macros.
+call, including macros called from other macros.  For more details on
+quoting rules, see @ref{Programming in M4}.
 
 For instance:
 
@@ -9864,7 +9865,9 @@ former helps one to follow the latter.
 To fully understand where proper quotation is important, you first need
 to know what the special characters are in Autoconf: @samp{#} introduces
 a comment inside which no macro expansion is performed, @samp{,}
-separates arguments, @samp{[} and @samp{]} are the quotes themselves,
+separates arguments, @samp{[} and @samp{]} are the quotes
+themselves@footnote{By itself, M4 uses @samp{`} and @samp{'}; it is the
+M4sugar layer that sets up the preferred quotes of @samp{[} and @samp{]}.},
 @samp{(} and @samp{)} (which M4 tries to match by pairs), and finally
 @samp{$} inside a macro definition.