Re: [Bug-AUCTeX] 11.83; Paren matching in AUCTeX

[Ralf Angeli]

* Shreevatsa R. (2007-03-02) writes:

> But just for information, could you say what purpose the \ currently
> serves (what would break without it, and why the "b" in "\begin" should
> be considered an escaped character), and why you think \[ \] should not
> be matched (the difficulty of its implementation aside)?

In general escape characters are used to remove the special syntactic
meaning of certain characters.  To express e.g. that \} is not a
closing brace or that \" is not a string quote.  See also
(info "(elisp)Syntax Class Table").  Without recognition of \ as an
escape character e.g. commands for moving by balanced parentheses
might fail.  Try e.g. `C-M-f' on "{foo{bar}" in LaTeX mode.  And these
movement commands are used extensively e.g. for font locking but also
for other editing purposes.  There are other examples like recognition
of sentence endings, commands skipping certain syntax classes
etc. etc. etc.

-- 
Ralf