+2005-05-23 Lute Kamstra <lute@gnu.org>
+
+ * modes.texi (Font Lock Basics, Syntactic Font Lock): Recommend
+ syntax-begin-function over font-lock-beginning-of-syntax-function.
+
2005-05-21 Luc Teirlinck <teirllm@auburn.edu>
* minibuf.texi (Reading File Names): Update description of
resulting syntax table is stored in @code{font-lock-syntax-table}.
The fifth element, @var{syntax-begin}, specifies the value of
-@code{font-lock-beginning-of-syntax-function}.
+@code{font-lock-beginning-of-syntax-function}. We recommend setting
+this variable to @code{nil} and using @code{syntax-begin-function}
+instead.
All the remaining elements (if any) are collectively called
@var{other-vars}. Each of these elements should have the form
@code{font-lock-defaults}.
@end defvar
-@c ???
-@c The docstring says that font-lock-syntax-table is semi-obsolete.
-@c How the alternative should be used is not clear. --lute
-
@defvar font-lock-beginning-of-syntax-function
If this variable is non-@code{nil}, it should be a function to move
point back to a position that is syntactically at ``top level'' and
be outside a syntactic block), or @code{beginning-of-defun} for
programming modes, or @code{backward-paragraph} for textual modes.
-If the value is @code{nil}, the beginning of the buffer is used as a
-position outside of a syntactic block. This cannot be wrong, but it
-can be slow.
+If the value is @code{nil}, Font Lock uses
+@code{syntax-begin-function} to move back outside of any comment,
+string, or sexp. This variable is semi-obsolete; we recommend setting
+@code{syntax-begin-function} instead.
Specify this variable using @var{syntax-begin} in
@code{font-lock-defaults}.