From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Improved help from minibuffer prompts Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 14:07:29 -0400 Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: References: Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1082139584 24944 80.91.224.253 (16 Apr 2004 18:19:44 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 18:19:44 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Fri Apr 16 20:19:39 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1BEXwB-0002yo-00 for ; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 20:19:39 +0200 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1BEXwA-0001HX-00 for ; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 20:19:38 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1BEXsT-0004jx-Ja for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 14:15:49 -0400 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1BEXpQ-0003SX-Qq for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 14:12:40 -0400 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1BEXl3-0001xT-JD for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 14:08:41 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.164] (helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1BEXl2-0001wZ-6Z for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 14:08:08 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.24) id 1BEXkP-00087A-Kd; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 14:07:29 -0400 Original-To: =?iso-8859-1?q?Stefan_Reich=F6r?= In-reply-to: (message from =?iso-8859-1?q?Stefan_Reich=F6r?= on Thu, 15 Apr 2004 07:50:14 +0200) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.4 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:21783 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:21783 > You didn't say which function you mean, but according to the code > it looks like the entire doc string of the command that invoked > the minibuffer is the help string you use. I don't think > that will be very natural. I think it is convenient. Every interactive function has already a docstring. The doc string for the function is not designed to explain how to enter a specific argument. It is the wrong text for this job. When I type M-x grep and get a prompt and I am not sure, what I am asked here, I can just get the help for the function grep. That might be useful, but it isn't the same idea. The idea was to tell the user about the argument being entered, wasn't it?