From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: On being web-friendly and why info must die Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 09:56:23 +0200 Message-ID: <83ppbx1aag.fsf@gnu.org> References: <20141205123549.GA29331@thyrsus.com> <87mw72lyzs.fsf@earlgrey.lan> <20141205190925.GA5067@thyrsus.com> <20141206061019.GC14890@thyrsus.com> Reply-To: Eli Zaretskii NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1417852595 21911 80.91.229.3 (6 Dec 2014 07:56:35 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2014 07:56:35 +0000 (UTC) Cc: cwebber@dustycloud.org, monnier@iro.umontreal.ca, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: esr@thyrsus.com Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Dec 06 08:56:28 2014 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 1XxAE8-0002oK-0G for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 08:56:28 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:53676 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XxAE7-0004BP-HL for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 02:56:27 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:40481) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XxADr-0004BH-UP for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 02:56:16 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XxADn-0005po-3s for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 02:56:11 -0500 Original-Received: from mtaout22.012.net.il ([80.179.55.172]:55633) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XxADm-0005pj-Rq for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 02:56:07 -0500 Original-Received: from conversion-daemon.a-mtaout22.012.net.il by a-mtaout22.012.net.il (HyperSendmail v2007.08) id <0NG500H00HMBHQ00@a-mtaout22.012.net.il> for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 09:56:05 +0200 (IST) Original-Received: from HOME-C4E4A596F7 ([87.69.4.28]) by a-mtaout22.012.net.il (HyperSendmail v2007.08) with ESMTPA id <0NG500HNDI1GHN10@a-mtaout22.012.net.il>; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 09:56:05 +0200 (IST) In-reply-to: <20141206061019.GC14890@thyrsus.com> X-012-Sender: halo1@inter.net.il X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Solaris 10 X-Received-From: 80.179.55.172 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:179104 Archived-At: > Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2014 01:10:19 -0500 > From: "Eric S. Raymond" > Cc: Christopher Allan Webber , emacs-devel@gnu.org > > > Until there is a documentation viewer available in Elisp that is almost > > as good as Info-mode while being prettier, > > Does a web browser not qualify? Not to me, not as progress from the current situation. > If not, why not? Because copy/pasting docs from a separate program while working on something in Emacs is an annoyance -- it generally requires to reach for the mouse, switch windows, etc. And because some very useful features, like "M-/", work well on stuff that is in an Emacs buffer, but there are no comparable features for duplicating stiff in another application. And also because the index-searching commands, without which you are lost in a large manual, don't exist in the Web browsers out there. And finally because Emacs documentation commands have links that go to the respective manual and chapter, but no similar features exist for external browsers. (For the latter, you might think these are easy to add, but that would need some not entirely trivial solution for finding the place where the HTML docs are installed on any given system.) And I'm sure there are more reasons that people will come up with. In sum, switching to a Web browser as the means to read documentation is a regression.