From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: no-spam@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Apropos commands and regexps Date: 13 May 2002 21:11:11 +0200 Sender: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org Message-ID: <5xbsbj9834.fsf@kfs2.cua.dk> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1021352576 30510 127.0.0.1 (14 May 2002 05:02:56 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 05:02:56 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1 (Debian)) id 177USe-0007vz-00 for ; Tue, 14 May 2002 07:02:56 +0200 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([199.232.76.164]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 177UdW-00032I-00 for ; Tue, 14 May 2002 07:14:11 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 3.34 #1 (Debian)) id 177USp-0008BI-00; Tue, 14 May 2002 01:03:07 -0400 Original-Received: from fepd.post.tele.dk ([195.41.46.149]) by fencepost.gnu.org with smtp (Exim 3.34 #1 (Debian)) id 177KHF-0007dt-00 for ; Mon, 13 May 2002 14:10:30 -0400 Original-Received: from kfs2.cua.dk.cua.dk ([80.62.38.68]) by fepD.post.tele.dk (InterMail vM.4.01.03.23 201-229-121-123-20010418) with SMTP id <20020513181026.VMB7393.fepD.post.tele.dk@kfs2.cua.dk.cua.dk>; Mon, 13 May 2002 20:10:26 +0200 Original-To: Eli Zaretskii In-Reply-To: Original-Lines: 40 User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.2.50 Errors-To: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.9 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:3894 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:3894 Eli Zaretskii writes: > On 12 May 2002 storm@cua.dk wrote: > > > Apropos command (regexp): > > > > which may be nonsense to some novice users. > > > > > > Wouldn't it be simpler (for a novice user -- and for advanced users > > too) to simply write one or more words (substrings) and then search > > for all combinations of those words (substrings) in the relevant list. > > > > E.g. C-h a open file RET would find any matching > > > > open.*file and file.*open > > > > BTW, this obvious example doesn't find `find-file' :-( > > Maybe we should have a defalias open-file -> find-file ? > > Perhaps we should have a new command for that, and name it something like > apropos-keywords. I disagree. IMO, the purpose of the various apropos commands are to find (let's call it) "interesting information". To fulfill that purpose, all apropos commands should a) be easy to use - especially for the novice user b) accept the same type of "search patterns". I think giving the apropos commands a keyword based interface is a good way to accomplish (a), and having an specific apropos-keywords command breaks (b). Also, what would apropos-keywords look for? `commands', `variables' `documentation', or "all of the above" ? ++kfs