From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Drew Adams Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Please post older versions of GNU Emacs manuals on the web Date: Sat, 2 Jan 2016 08:46:17 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <1e249214-6831-4c2b-98a4-d16a6d1d7048@default> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1451753204 27556 80.91.229.3 (2 Jan 2016 16:46:44 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 2 Jan 2016 16:46:44 +0000 (UTC) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Jan 02 17:46:32 2016 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1aFPK3-0006lE-IK for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 02 Jan 2016 17:46:31 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:38895 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aFPJz-0001Ls-GZ for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 02 Jan 2016 11:46:27 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:56312) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aFPJw-0001Lk-K7 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 02 Jan 2016 11:46:25 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aFPJt-0003Pw-DM for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 02 Jan 2016 11:46:24 -0500 Original-Received: from aserp1040.oracle.com ([141.146.126.69]:42105) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aFPJt-0003Pq-7G for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 02 Jan 2016 11:46:21 -0500 Original-Received: from aserv0022.oracle.com (aserv0022.oracle.com [141.146.126.234]) by aserp1040.oracle.com (Sentrion-MTA-4.3.2/Sentrion-MTA-4.3.2) with ESMTP id u02GkJ5X031240 (version=TLSv1 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=FAIL) for ; Sat, 2 Jan 2016 16:46:20 GMT Original-Received: from userv0122.oracle.com (userv0122.oracle.com [156.151.31.75]) by aserv0022.oracle.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id u02GkJU4017944 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=FAIL) for ; Sat, 2 Jan 2016 16:46:19 GMT Original-Received: from abhmp0014.oracle.com (abhmp0014.oracle.com [141.146.116.20]) by userv0122.oracle.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id u02GkJO0026279 for ; Sat, 2 Jan 2016 16:46:19 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-Mailer: Oracle Beehive Extensions for Outlook 2.0.1.9 (901082) [OL 12.0.6691.5000 (x86)] X-Source-IP: aserv0022.oracle.com [141.146.126.234] X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.4.x-2.6.x [generic] X-Received-From: 141.146.126.69 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:197370 Archived-At: If you have a version of GNU Emacs older than 24.4 then you are lucky to still have `defadvice' documented in the Elisp manual. (This useful doc _never_ should have been removed from the manual. But that is not the point of this post.) Suppose you are using Emacs 24.3 (or Emacs 23 or...). You visit the Elisp manual and you use `i defadvice' to visit the advice doc. You want to visit the same manual section on line (HTTP). Perhaps you want to bookmark it for use when you do not have Emacs available. Or maybe you want to send the URL to someone or post it in online Emacs help. Or maybe you want to print some of the HTML pages. Here's the rub. Only the manuals for the latest Emacs release are available on line. And because Emacs (unwisely) removed the doc for `defadvice', you are out of luck. There is no online doc for you. Can GNU Emacs not provide its users with the doc for more than one release on line? How hard and how costly is that? In many cases providing this service is maybe not so important, because Emacs tends to add more than it subtracts (mostly monotonic). But in a case such as the wholesale decapitation of `defadvice' doc you are really out of luck on the web. Wrt `defadvice', the big concession that was made was to keep the doc in the Lisp source code, as comments. That's piss-poor IMHO, but at least it shows some contrition for the sin of removing useful doc from users. How about posting multiple versions of the Emacs doc on line? --- FWIW, I use a simple command, bound to `G' in Info, to visit the current Info node on the web. Sounds silly, but I use it several times a day, to provide links in answers I give to online Emacs questions. (Of course, I also tell users the preferred method of accessing the doc, `C-h i'.) (defun Info-goto-node-web (node &optional flip-new-win) "Use `browse-url' to go to Info node NODE using a Web browser. With a prefix arg, reverse the effect of option option`browse-url-new-window-flag'. NODE is the name of a node in the GNU Emacs or Elisp manual. Alternatively, NODE can have the form (MANUAL)NODE, where MANUAL is \"emacs\" or \"elisp\" and NODE is the name of the node in that manual. Empty NODE in (MANUAL) defaults to the `Top' node." (interactive (list (Info-read-node-name "Go to node: " Info-current-node) current-prefix-arg)) (require 'browse-url) (unless Info-current-file (error "This command must be invoked from Info")) (browse-url (Info-url-for-node node) (list (if flip-new-win (not browse-url-new-window-flag) browse-url-new-window-flag))))