bug#12270: 24.1.50; (elisp) Syntax Descriptors: "second character, if present"

[Drew Adams]

This text does not seem correct to me.  At least it seems unclear.
 
 "The first character in a syntax descriptor must be a syntax class
  designator character.  The second character, if present, specifies a
  matching character (e.g. in Lisp, the matching character for `(' is
  `)'); a space specifies that there is no matching character."
 
How can the second char be absent if the third char is present?  It is
wrong to speak of a char being "present" here, AFAICT.  What should be
said instead of "present" is non-space:
 
 "The second character, if not a space, specifies..."
 

In GNU Emacs 24.1.50.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600)
 of 2012-08-13 on MARVIN
Bzr revision: 109584 monnier@iro.umontreal.ca-20120813141247-76irjqslrfncn30u
Windowing system distributor `Microsoft Corp.', version 5.1.2600
Configured using:
 `configure --with-gcc (4.6) --no-opt --enable-checking --cflags
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/libXpm-3.5.8/include
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/libXpm-3.5.8/src
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/libpng-dev_1.4.3-1/include
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/zlib-dev_1.2.5-2/include
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/giflib-4.1.4-1/include
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/jpeg-6b-4/include
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/tiff-3.8.2-1/include
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/gnutls-3.0.9/include
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/libiconv-1.13.1-1-dev/include
 -ID:/devel/emacs/libs/libxml2-2.7.8/include/libxml2'