From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Luc Teirlinck Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: "What's This?" in Describe submenu Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 17:59:42 -0500 (CDT) Message-ID: <200508222259.j7MMxgs14375@raven.dms.auburn.edu> References: <4308398B.60401@gmx.at> <200508220050.j7M0oGv12335@raven.dms.auburn.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1124751890 9771 80.91.229.2 (22 Aug 2005 23:04:50 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 23:04:50 +0000 (UTC) Cc: rudalics@gmx.at, emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Aug 23 01:04:42 2005 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1E7LJv-0000hc-37 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 23 Aug 2005 01:03:11 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1E7LNf-0004D4-56 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 22 Aug 2005 19:07:03 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1E7LLU-0003zN-NC for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 22 Aug 2005 19:04:48 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1E7LKo-0003wD-LT for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 22 Aug 2005 19:04:08 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1E7LKj-0003lT-0q for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 22 Aug 2005 19:04:01 -0400 Original-Received: from [131.204.53.104] (helo=manatee.dms.auburn.edu) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1E7LHX-0007ss-MD; Mon, 22 Aug 2005 19:00:43 -0400 Original-Received: from raven.dms.auburn.edu (raven.dms.auburn.edu [131.204.53.29]) by manatee.dms.auburn.edu (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id j7MMxuqt027394; Mon, 22 Aug 2005 17:59:57 -0500 (CDT) Original-Received: (from teirllm@localhost) by raven.dms.auburn.edu (8.11.7p1+Sun/8.11.7) id j7MMxgs14375; Mon, 22 Aug 2005 17:59:42 -0500 (CDT) X-Authentication-Warning: raven.dms.auburn.edu: teirllm set sender to teirllm@dms.auburn.edu using -f Original-To: rms@gnu.org In-reply-to: (rms@gnu.org) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:42326 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:42326 Richard Stallman wrote: Let's just find out the facts about the latest version of Windows, and then I'll decide what to do. I do not use MS Windows, but from looking at the website Lennart mentioned, it appears that Microsoft still supports the "What's this?" feature under that name. I do not know how relevant that is if most MS Windows users do not know about it, or never use it. It is also obvious from that website that the feature is very different from what describe-key does. So referring to describe-key as "What's this" would, to me, seem much more likely to confuse MS Windows or KDE users, rather than helping them. An MS Windows application that _wants_ to support "What's This" can do so by doing one or more of: 1. Adding it at top level of the Help menu. 2. Binding the feature to S-F1 3. Adding a clickable picture of an arrow and a question mark to the toolbar. 4. Adding a clickable picture of a question mark to the title bar. as well as by some additional means. Unlike the KDE situation where (1) and (2) apparently are done automatically even for KDE applications that do not support the "What's This" feature at all (which is very confusing), Microsoft seems to leave all of (1) through (4) to the discretion of individual application (_if_ I understood the website correctly). So not all MS Windows applications may have the feature. Maybe very few do. (I can not check that.) Clearly, the above is just my personal interpretation of Microsoft's website. I've used Windows for about ten years. I don't remember ever seeing a "What's This" message. I just checked Visual Studio .NET, Microsoft Office, and Internet Explorer. Can't find it. That is peculiar. Yet others have just said that What's This is indeed used in Windows. There is no contradiction there. (See above.) In as far as KDE is concerned, apparently most KDE applications do not support the "What's This" feature at all. Even those applications have a key binding and a menu item, but they are no-ops except for their graphical effects. Sincerely, Luc.