Re: Specialized Emacs Features ?

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Jean-Christophe Helary <jean.christophe.helary@gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2017 08:46:56 +0900
> 
> > On Jun 3, 2017, at 2:34, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
> > 
> > IME, learning a new tool is more efficient if done in a spiral than in
> > a tree-like depth-first order.
> 
> I agree, and I'm not suggesting that we impose a learning method to the reader. The manual is fully linked and referenced and as such is already fully "spiralable".

This argument goes both ways: if the order of chapters doesn't matter,
then why are you suggesting to change it?

But I think the order does matter: you forget about the reader who
reads the printed book.  Books are generally read front to back, so
the order of chapters does matter in that case.

> I'm just concerned about that "advanced features" section that looks like a list of chapters that were just put there as an afterthought. For ex, the "sort text" item should really be after 22.7. There is no reason why it appears as an advanced feature.

It's "advanced" because most users will rarely if ever need to sort
text within Emacs.

> There is a "networking" section that could be created by just adding a section title etc.

I could agree to having Gnus, Rmail, and "Sending Mail" under the same
chapter.  But I see no reason to have them all under "Networking", nor
bringing EWW and WebKit chapters to their side, as that doesn't
necessarily make sense to a user.  And "Host Security" is not about
networking anyway.

> I'm just talking about a little gardening in the manual.

That's fine, but the current structure is not arbitrary, either, so we
must agree on some principles first.  E.g., claiming that the order
doesn't matter is a non-starter, IMO.