8.5.13 Syntax Table Type

Under SXEmacs and XEmacs 20+, a syntax table is a particular type of char table. Under XEmacs 19, a syntax table a vector of 256 integers. In both cases, each element defines how one character is interpreted when it appears in a buffer. For example, in C mode (see Major Modes), the ‘+’ character is punctuation, but in Lisp mode it is a valid character in a symbol. These modes specify different interpretations by changing the syntax table entry for ‘+’.

Syntax tables are used only for scanning text in buffers, not for reading Lisp expressions. The table the Lisp interpreter uses to read expressions is built into the SXEmacs source code and cannot be changed; thus, to change the list delimiters to be ‘{’ and ‘}’ instead of ‘(’ and ‘)’ would be impossible.

See Syntax Tables, for details about syntax classes and how to make and modify syntax tables.