From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Kastrup Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: On being web-friendly and why info must die Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 18:25:54 +0100 Message-ID: <87d27wofkt.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> References: <20141205123549.GA29331@thyrsus.com> <87mw72lyzs.fsf@earlgrey.lan> <20141205190925.GA5067@thyrsus.com> <20141206061019.GC14890@thyrsus.com> <87r3wdp0r5.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> <2e3dd70f-e3b7-4fb7-81c2-72331b5bc520@default> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1417886793 30368 80.91.229.3 (6 Dec 2014 17:26:33 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2014 17:26:33 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Drew Adams Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Dec 06 18:26:26 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 1XxJ7g-0002EN-Ac for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 18:26:24 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:55082 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XxJ7f-0001FV-TK for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 12:26:23 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:48724) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XxJ7S-0001FE-3u for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 12:26:11 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XxJ7R-0001gS-7V for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 12:26:10 -0500 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:51355) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XxJ7R-0001gO-40 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 12:26:09 -0500 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:58531 helo=lola) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1XxJ7P-0003YX-Rj; Sat, 06 Dec 2014 12:26:08 -0500 Original-Received: by lola (Postfix, from userid 1000) id C30E1DF2A7; Sat, 6 Dec 2014 18:25:54 +0100 (CET) In-Reply-To: <2e3dd70f-e3b7-4fb7-81c2-72331b5bc520@default> (Drew Adams's message of "Sat, 6 Dec 2014 08:44:19 -0800 (PST)") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/25.0.50 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Error: Malformed IPv6 address (bad octet value). X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e 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:179192 Archived-At: Drew Adams writes: >> I frequently point people to particular nodes of our online HTML >> manuals that could answer their question. The way I do that is >> to find the information in Info, then copy&paste some recognizably >> unique text phrase into a web search engine, check that the >> reference this turns up is the corresponding online version of >> the Info manual and then post the HTML link. > > Same here. Except I don't bother to search the web. I just go > to the GNU Emacs or Elisp manual on the web (separate HTML page > per node version), search the TOC (first page) for the node name, > and copy the URL of the link to that node. > > I do this often. Instead of just answering questions, it is > most helpful to *point users to the doc*, so they get additional > info and they get the benefit of well thought out presentation. > > It is even more helpful to also to tell them how _they_ can find > such doc, by *asking Emacs* directly. > > Probably what I should do is write an Emacs command that does > all of that from an Info node: grab the URL to that same manual > node on the web. But it's so quick to get it manually that I > haven't bothered, so far. To make that work reliably it might be reasonable to create a Texinfo command to specify the "canonical" web location and have this converted into something in Info that the info reader can recognize and interpret. This should actually even be workable for the standalone Info reader. Of course it relies on the HTML node name generation being the same as the Info reader can readily guess. -- David Kastrup