Parens matching does match wrong parentheses

[Arjan Bos]

To: address@hidden
Subject: Parens matching does match wrong parentheses types
--text follows this line--
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Please describe exactly what actions triggered the bug
and the precise symptoms of the bug:

Dear emacs maintainers,

Currently I work a lot with rtf-files. These files are riddled with 
matching curly braces `{ }'. Every now and then, a pair of curly braces 
contains an open parentheses `(', or a closing parentheses `)'. The 
functions (forward-sexp) and (backward-sexp), C-M-f and C-M-b match the 
parentheses as a curly brace. Also, the font-locking for paren-mode 
gets confused by this.

A sample, non-sensical, but syntacticly valid rtf code that contains 
this problem is included here:

{\rtf1\mac\ansicpg10000\uc1
{\*\pnseclvl4\pnlcltr\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxta )}}}

The first `{' matches the last `}'. Only C-M-f jumps from the first `{' 
to the one-to-last `}'.  This is incorrect, as there are, in sequence 
three opening parentheses `{', one closing parentheses `)' and three 
closing curly braces `}'

Also, when point is on the first opening curly brace, and 
(show-paren-mode 1) is in effect, it will, incorrectly show the first 
'{' as non-matching.

This problem is not restricted to rtf-code, elisp also suffers from it. 
Try auto-indenting the following piece of elisp:
(defvar generic-rtf-mode-syntax-table
  (let ((table (make-syntax-table)))
    (modify-syntax-entry ?( "." table)
    (modify-syntax-entry ?) "." table)
    (modify-syntax-entry ?[ "." table)
    (modify-syntax-entry ?] "." table)
    table))


I hope that solving this bug will make the (emacs) world an even better 
place.

Thanks a lot in advance for your time!

Arjan Bos


Appendices:

In GNU Emacs 21.3.50.4 (powerpc-apple-darwin7.5.0)
 of 2004-09-05 on Arjan-Bos-Computer.local
configured using `configure '--enable-carbon-app' '--without-x''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: nil
  locale-coding-system: nil
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Rtf-Generic

Minor modes in effect:
  desktop-save-mode: t
  show-paren-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  unify-8859-on-encoding-mode: t
  utf-translate-cjk-mode: t
  column-number-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent input:
<down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down>
<down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <help-echo>
<down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> <down> <down> <down> <down>
<down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1>
<down> <down> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> <down-mouse-1>
<mouse-1> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down>
<down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down>
<down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down>
<down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> <down> <down> <down> <down>
<down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> <down-mouse-1>
<mouse-1> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> <down> <down> <down-mouse-1>
<mouse-1> C-v <down> <down> <down> <down> <down> <down>
<down> <down> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo>
<down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-1> <down-mouse-1>
<mouse-1> C-x k <return> <menu-bar> <help-menu> <r
eport-emacs-bug>

Recent messages:
Loading tex...done
Loading font-latex...done
Loading latex...done
Loading easy-mmode...done
Applying style hooks... done
Desktop: 29 buffers restored.
Quit
Mark set
View mode: type C-h for help, h for commands, q to quit.
Loading emacsbug...done
---
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