; Improve documentation of text-property-search-* functions

* doc/lispref/text.texi (Property Search): Improve wording and markup.

* lisp/emacs-lisp/text-property-search.el (text-property-search-forward)
(text-property-search-backward): Doc fixes.  (Bug#64367)

doc/lispref/text.texi

@@ -3398,37 +3398,43 @@ for @var{object} is the current buffer.
 @end defun
 
 @defun text-property-search-forward prop &optional value predicate not-current
-Search for the next region that has text property @var{prop} set to
-@var{value} according to @var{predicate}.
+Search for the next region of text whose property @var{prop} is a
+match for @var{value} (which defaults to @code{nil}), according to
+@var{predicate}.
 
-This function is modeled after @code{search-forward} and friends in
-that it moves point, but it returns a structure that describes the
-match instead of returning it in @code{match-beginning} and friends.
+This function is modeled after @code{search-forward} (@pxref{String
+Search}) and friends, in that it moves point, but it also returns a
+structure that describes the match instead of returning it in
+@code{match-beginning} and friends.
 
-If the text property can't be found, the function returns @code{nil}.
-If it's found, point is placed at the end of the region that has this
-text property match, and a @code{prop-match} structure is returned.
+If the text property whose value is a match can't be found, the
+function returns @code{nil}.  If it's found, point is placed at the
+end of the region that has this matching text property, and the
+function returns a @code{prop-match} structure with information about
+the match.
 
 @var{predicate} can either be @code{t} (which is a synonym for
 @code{equal}), @code{nil} (which means ``not equal''), or a predicate
-that will be called with two parameters: The first is @var{value}, and
-the second is the value of the text property we're inspecting.
+that will be called with two arguments: @var{value} and the value of
+the text property @var{prop} at the buffer position that is a
+candidate for a match.  The function should return non-@code{nil} if
+there's a match, @code{nil} otherwise.
 
-If @var{not-current}, if point is in a region where we have a match,
-then skip past that and find the next instance instead.
+If @var{not-current} is non-@code{nil}, then if point is already in a
+region where we have a property match, skip past that region and find
+the next region instead.
 
-The @code{prop-match} structure has the following accessors:
+The @code{prop-match} structure has the following accessor functionss:
 @code{prop-match-beginning} (the start of the match),
 @code{prop-match-end} (the end of the match), and
 @code{prop-match-value} (the value of @var{property} at the start of
 the match).
 
-In the examples below, imagine that you're in a buffer that looks like
-this:
+In the examples below, we use a buffer whose contents is:
 
-@example
-This is a bold and here's bolditalic and this is the end.
-@end example
+@display
+This is a @b{bold} and here's @b{@i{bolditalic}} and this is the end.
+@end display
 
 That is, the ``bold'' words are the @code{bold} face, and the
 ``italic'' word is in the @code{italic} face.
@@ -3452,8 +3458,9 @@ This will pick out all the words that use the @code{bold} face.
 @end lisp
 
 This will pick out all the bits that have no face properties, which
-will result in the list @samp{("This is a " "and here's " "and this is
-the end")} (only reversed, since we used @code{push}).
+will result in the list @samp{(@w{"This is a "} @w{"and here's "}
+@w{"and this is the end"})} (only in reverse order, since we used
+@code{push}, @pxref{List Variables}).
 
 @lisp
 (while (setq match (text-property-search-forward 'face nil nil))
@@ -3481,8 +3488,8 @@ This will give you a list of all those URLs.
 
 @defun text-property-search-backward prop &optional value predicate not-current
 This is just like @code{text-property-search-forward}, but searches
-backward instead.  Point is placed at the beginning of the matched
-region instead of the end, though.
+backward instead, and if a match is found, point is placed at the
+beginning of the matched region instead of the end.
 @end defun
 
 

lisp/emacs-lisp/text-property-search.el

@@ -31,40 +31,41 @@
 
 (defun text-property-search-forward (property &optional value predicate
                                               not-current)
-  "Search for the next region of text where PREDICATE is true.
-PREDICATE is used to decide whether a value of PROPERTY should be
-considered as matching VALUE.
+  "Search for next region of text where PREDICATE returns non-nil for PROPERTY.
+PREDICATE is used to decide whether the value of PROPERTY at a given
+buffer position should be considered as a match for VALUE.
+VALUE defaults to nil if omitted.
 
 If PREDICATE is a function, it will be called with two arguments:
-VALUE and the value of PROPERTY.  The function should return
-non-nil if these two values are to be considered a match.
+VALUE and the value of PROPERTY at some buffer position.  The function
+should return non-nil if these two values are to be considered a match.
 
 Two special values of PREDICATE can also be used:
-If PREDICATE is t, that means a value must `equal' VALUE to be
-considered a match.
-If PREDICATE is nil (which is the default value), a value will
-match if is not `equal' to VALUE.  Furthermore, a nil PREDICATE
-means that the match region is ended if the value changes.  For
+If PREDICATE is t, that means the value of PROPERTY must `equal' VALUE
+to be considered a match.
+If PREDICATE is nil (which is the default), the value of PROPERTY will
+match if it is not `equal' to VALUE.  Furthermore, a nil PREDICATE
+means that the match region ends where the value changes.  For
 instance, this means that if you loop with
 
   (while (setq prop (text-property-search-forward \\='face))
     ...)
 
-you will get all distinct regions with non-nil `face' values in
+you will get all the distinct regions with non-nil `face' values in
 the buffer, and the `prop' object will have the details about the
 match.  See the manual for more details and examples about how
 VALUE and PREDICATE interact.
 
-If NOT-CURRENT is non-nil, the function will search for the first
-region that doesn't include point and has a value of PROPERTY
-that matches VALUE.
+If NOT-CURRENT is non-nil, current buffer position is not examined for
+matches: the function will search for the first region that doesn't
+include point and has a value of PROPERTY that matches VALUE.
 
 If no matches can be found, return nil and don't move point.
 If found, move point to the end of the region and return a
 `prop-match' object describing the match.  To access the details
 of the match, use `prop-match-beginning' and `prop-match-end' for
-the buffer positions that limit the region, and
-`prop-match-value' for the value of PROPERTY in the region."
+the buffer positions that limit the region, and `prop-match-value'
+for the value of PROPERTY in the region."
   (interactive
    (list
     (let ((string (completing-read "Search for property: " obarray)))
@@ -134,7 +135,7 @@ the buffer positions that limit the region, and
 
 (defun text-property-search-backward (property &optional value predicate
                                                not-current)
-  "Search for the previous region of text whose PROPERTY matches VALUE.
+  "Search for previous region of text where PREDICATE returns non-nil for PROPERTY.
 
 Like `text-property-search-forward', which see, but searches backward,
 and if a matching region is found, place point at the start of the region."