From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Joe Corneli Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: contextual help on new features Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 23:41:24 -0600 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1111902562 16448 80.91.229.2 (27 Mar 2005 05:49:22 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2005 05:49:22 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Mar 27 07:49:20 2005 Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DFQe6-00061b-VP for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 27 Mar 2005 07:49:11 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DFQtw-00050m-7X for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 27 Mar 2005 01:05:32 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DFQtU-0004xB-8Z for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 27 Mar 2005 01:05:05 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DFQtL-0004sq-5N for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 27 Mar 2005 01:04:56 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DFQtL-0004rX-0I for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 27 Mar 2005 01:04:55 -0500 Original-Received: from [146.6.139.124] (helo=dell3.ma.utexas.edu) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1DFQWb-0000RV-7W for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 27 Mar 2005 00:41:25 -0500 Original-Received: from lab45.ma.utexas.edu (mail@lab45.ma.utexas.edu [128.83.133.159]) by dell3.ma.utexas.edu (8.11.0.Beta3/8.10.2) with ESMTP id j2R5fOC31707; Sat, 26 Mar 2005 23:41:24 -0600 Original-Received: from jcorneli by lab45.ma.utexas.edu with local (Exim 3.36 #1 (Debian)) id 1DFQWa-0004Dx-00; Sat, 26 Mar 2005 23:41:24 -0600 Original-To: emacs-devel X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:35227 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:35227 The real point of the thread was - how easy is it to turn off new features that you don't like (again, a frequent topic of discussion). `M-x customize-changed-options RET PREVIOUS-VERSION' is mainly supposed to take care of that. Unfortunately, that list has grown _huge_ and just getting the buffer takes a long time. I suppose that in theory this might be somewhat useful, but it can't be called "contextual help". But looking over the generated buffer, I'm observing that no explaination of how (or why) these features have changed is offered. I would say that, like the NEWS file, this approach seems likely to be overwhelming and confusing. Too much information, not enough explanation. (And, like in the joke, I hadn't even heard of this command before, either!)