JuliaLang/julia

add help builtins for special characters

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#33,666 opened on Oct 24, 2019

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 (7 comments) (4 reactions) (0 assignees)Julia (48,709 stars) (5,773 forks)batch import
docsgood first issuehelp wanted

Description

Help currently had a list of keywords that are handled specially: https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/blob/f8067172557e4967714e92450f27d74dbf959760/stdlib/REPL/src/docview.jl#L524-L529 (from #12438).

It would be good to handle characters which have special meaning:

  • $ for interpolation
  • @ for macro invocation
  • '' for character literals
  • " for string literals
  • [ for array expressions and comprehensions
  • ( for tuples
  • . for broadcasting
  • ``` for commands
  • ; other uses (as mentioned in punctuation.md)

cc: @charleskawczynski

Contributor guide

Tech stack
None
Domain
documentation
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
familiarity with Julia's REPL help systemunderstanding of special character syntaxability to locate and modify docview.jl
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
70
Research direction
The issue involves adding help entries for special characters in the Julia REPL. The file to modify is stdlib/REPL/src/docview.jl, specifically around lines 524-529, where a list of keywords is defined. The remaining characters to add are `.` for broadcasting, `` ` `` for commands, and `;` for other uses. New entries should follow the same pattern as existing ones, e.g., for '$', '@', etc. Refer to the linked PR #12438 for context. No maintainer clarification is needed as the scope is clear.