From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Robinow Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: "What's This?" in Describe submenu Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 10:10:24 -0400 Message-ID: <4eb0089f050824071042d7906@mail.gmail.com> References: <4308398B.60401@gmx.at> <200508230008.j7N081514425@raven.dms.auburn.edu> <200508230440.j7N4eKJ14873@raven.dms.auburn.edu> <200508241246.j7OCk3J18712@raven.dms.auburn.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1124896691 13079 80.91.229.2 (24 Aug 2005 15:18:11 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 15:18:11 +0000 (UTC) Cc: eliz@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Aug 24 17:18:10 2005 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1E7wxk-0007hE-8S for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 24 Aug 2005 17:14:48 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1E7wzd-0006on-GV for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 24 Aug 2005 11:16:45 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1E7wxd-00068h-3z for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 24 Aug 2005 11:14:41 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1E7wxa-00067i-JC for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 24 Aug 2005 11:14:40 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1E7wtH-0004mZ-Ez for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 24 Aug 2005 11:10:11 -0400 Original-Received: from [64.233.184.194] (helo=wproxy.gmail.com) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1E7wQe-00061Y-3L for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 24 Aug 2005 10:40:36 -0400 Original-Received: by wproxy.gmail.com with SMTP id i2so203159wra for ; Wed, 24 Aug 2005 07:39:26 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=ZI85pKX3lJuYc7a5LcGKsNQmsPQMJ+pqghFPJYA74OsrZTHdI5NFxCY9puYjSO8Zmct44x2FnYRYXM/xp51zITexy9q+/lmRNJQhWV2GkyEEvfTiERILEdLEU9e699t/tR2LhDgr6E14/3Euj4ow615/3x2Tflz/epa8w94iZfU= Original-Received: by 10.54.42.27 with SMTP id p27mr671644wrp; Wed, 24 Aug 2005 07:10:24 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: by 10.54.108.2 with HTTP; Wed, 24 Aug 2005 07:10:24 -0700 (PDT) Original-To: Luc Teirlinck In-Reply-To: <200508241246.j7OCk3J18712@raven.dms.auburn.edu> Content-Disposition: inline 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:42392 Archived-At: On 8/24/05, Luc Teirlinck wrote: > Eli Zaretskii wrote" >=20 > It seems Microsoft removed the "What's This" string and/or tooltip > from the latest versions of Windows, >=20 > That was a smart decision. They apparently forgot to update their > website, which is what confused me, but I guess they will eventually > get to that too. So the only purpose of the "What's This?" string > would be for KDE users. But to KDE users the feature means a very > different thing. I do not have the very latest KDE version and hence > do not know whether KDE still uses the "What's This" menu item, or > whether they already followed Microsoft's example, as they should. >=20 > So what reason do we have to stick with an obsolete silly Microsoft > idea, which, to their credit, they realized was silly and corrected? Hold on. I've seen no evidence that Microsoft has abandoned this feature. I posted earlier that I was not familiar with it and it didn't appear in my copy of Office 2003. However, it does appear in my Office 2002 at work. Both systems run Windows XP. I installed my home version. It's quite possible I selected an installation option that inhibited that menu item. In any case "What's This" , Shift F1, and the icon with the question mark and left leaning arrow are application features not OS features. Some programs implement it and others don't. For example, Gimp for Windows implements the feature, uses the Shift-F1 keyboard command, but the menu calls it "Context Sensitive Help" (a much better name IMO) and the icon is different. As mentioned before, Internet Explorer implements it but not at the top level. Qt Designer uses it. etc., etc. Some of the implementations are awful but some aren't. Now that I know it exists, I'll probably start using it. The intent of my original post was to provide a data point. "What's this" was meaningless to me. I don't know if the "What's this" menu item is helpful to new-to-emacs Windows users. I've been using emacs since before Windows was born, so my opinion may not be relevant. In any case, I certainly agree that the content of the help messages is more important than the label on the menu.