Re: generate 1) virtual index and 2) other pages for Info; 3) S-mouse-2: follow link in new window

[Bastien <bzg@altern.org>]

"Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:

> 1. It would be useful to have an Info command, say bound to `I', that would
> do for index lookup what `L' (Info-history) does for chronological
> navigation. You would type a regexp, and it would show you a buffer similar
> to the `Recently Visited Nodes' buffer of `L'.

> [...]

> 2. The same implementation could perhaps be leveraged to let users create
> their own virtual Info booklets. 

That would be very useful.  

Let me try to sum up this thread.

By "good documentation and software support", we mean something like:

(1) a lot of static information for each feature
(2) a nice navigation system to go through it
(3) a lively community answering with no delay
(4) a personal database aware of my own bias and learning curve

Emacs can't be beaten on (3), even though it's a well known fact that
Emacs people are arrogant, rude with noobs, etc. :)

Emacs is also great on (1), nobody can really complain on that.

Dave first raised a problem that fully belongs to (4) then wanted (2) to
be the culprit (sorry Dave). But this are separate problems. The problem
of not being able to find "revert" when we look for "refresh" should be
solved by a personal help manager, not by the navigation system through
the documentation.

I think "Info booklets" are a good starting point for a "personal help
manager" (please someone rescue me from this awful expression, I'm not
an english native speaker).  

Maybe such a tool could also store every help-* call in a way that it
will store the *path* going from the initial input to the answer.  

It one thing not to be able to know *everything* about Emacs features.
It's another thing not to be able to find the feature we actually need.
And it's again another thing not to be able to *remind* oneself what is
the name of a feature we already used some time ago.

-- 
Bastien