(font-lock-syntactic-keywords): Fix/expand description.

1 files changed, 40 insertions, 8 deletions

diff --git a/lispref/modes.texi b/lispref/modes.texi
index 201e9ad3dc6..6915c3424c4 100644
--- a/lispref/modes.texi
+++ b/lispref/modes.texi
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 @c -*-texinfo-*-
 @c This is part of the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.
-@c Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999
+@c Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2003
 @c   Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 @c See the file elisp.texi for copying conditions.
 @setfilename ../info/modes
@@ -2178,8 +2178,9 @@ automatically.  This is useful in languages for which a single syntax
 table by itself is not sufficient.
 
 @defvar font-lock-syntactic-keywords
-This variable enables and controls syntactic Font Lock.  Its value
-should be a list of elements of this form:
+This variable enables and controls syntactic Font Lock.  It is
+normally set via @code{font-lock-defaults}.  Its value should be a
+list of elements of this form:
 
 @example
 (@var{matcher} @var{subexp} @var{syntax} @var{override} @var{laxmatch})
@@ -2193,11 +2194,42 @@ sort of element of @code{font-lock-keywords},
 @end example
 
 However, instead of specifying the value @var{facename} to use for the
-@code{face} property, it specifies the value @var{syntax} to use for the
-@code{syntax-table} property.  Here, @var{syntax} can be a variable
-whose value is a syntax table, a syntax entry of the form
-@code{(@var{syntax-code} . @var{matching-char})}, or an expression whose
-value is one of those two types.
+@code{face} property, it specifies the value @var{syntax} to use for
+the @code{syntax-table} property.  Here, @var{syntax} can be a string
+(as taken by @code{modify-syntax-entry}), a syntax table, a cons cell
+(as returned by @code{string-to-syntax}), or an expression whose value
+is one of those two types.  @var{override} cannot be @code{prepend} or
+@code{append}.
+
+For example, an element of the form:
+
+@example
+("\\$\\(#\\)" 1 ".")
+@end example
+
+highlights syntactically a hash character when following a dollar
+character, with a SYNTAX of @code{"."} (meaning punctuation syntax).
+Assuming that the buffer syntax table specifies hash characters to
+have comment start syntax, the element will only highlight hash
+characters that do not follow dollar characters as comments
+syntactically.
+
+An element of the form:
+
+@example
+ ("\\('\\).\\('\\)"
+  (1 "\"")
+  (2 "\""))
+@end example
+
+highlights syntactically both single quotes which surround a single
+character, with a SYNTAX of @code{"\""} (meaning string quote syntax).
+Assuming that the buffer syntax table does not specify single quotes
+to have quote syntax, the element will only highlight single quotes of
+the form @samp{'@var{c}'} as strings syntactically.  Other forms, such
+as @samp{foo'bar} or @samp{'fubar'}, will not be highlighted as
+strings.
+
 @end defvar
 
 @node Hooks