Re: `C-b' is backward-char, `left' is left-char - why?

[David Kastrup]

Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> writes:

>> From: Andy Moreton <address@hidden>
>> Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:48:15 +0100
>> 
>> The help strings for 'left-char and 'backward-char could use some work.
>> It is unclear which moves according to screen display order and which
>> moves according to buffer character order.
>
> I don't feel a need to invest "some work" on the doc string of
> `backward-char', because that function has not changed in ages,
> certainly not now.  If its doc string is unclear, then I wonder how
> did we all manage to use it all these years.
>
> Of course, I don't object if someone wants to work on that doc string.
>
> Regarding `left-char' and `right-char', the doc string says:
>
>   Depending on the bidirectional context, this may move either
>   backward or forward in the buffer.
>
> Believe it or not, but I tried to make it more precise for a long
> time, and this is the best I could come up with.

Correct me if I am wrong, but may it not also _jump_ backward or forward
in the buffer?  If I use right-char to move in an L2R context from L2R
text into a short embedded R2L text, I would expect it to move one
position to the right, namely _jump_ to the end of the R2L text, move
backwards over it till it comes to its beginning on the right, then
_jump_ to the following L2R text after its end on the left.

-- 
David Kastrup