Outline Mode and Outline Minor modes

Outline Mode and Outline Minor modes

[Robert J. Chassell]

The Emacs manual segment, which you can see in Info at

    (emacs)Outline Mode

should be renamed `Outline Minor Mode' and should deprecate Outline
Mode and favor Outline Minor mode.

With plain text, Outline Mode is good.  But I suspect that most people
who use Emacs employ some other major mode, whether it be CC or
Texinfo or another.

(I don't use Outline Mode for that reason and I never think of Outline
Minor mode.)

'C-h f' (describe-function) for `outline-minor-mode' refers you to the
help for `outline-mode'.  That Minor mode help does not tell you the
most important information about Outline Minor modes, either.

Unfortunately, the help for `outline-mode' does not tell you the
information about Outline Minor mode default keybindings.

The Emacs manual does, at      (emacs)Outline Mode

    Outline minor mode provides similar bindings with `C-c @' as the
    prefix; this is to reduce the conflicts with the major mode's
    special commands.  (The variable `outline-minor-mode-prefix'
    controls the prefix used.)

The bindings and the variable to change them should be emphasized in
several places.

(Now, if I were a person who used outlines, I might want to change the
documentation, but I am not that kind of person.  I discovered this
because someone else made a poor suggestion.  Someone who likes
outlines should act.  Otherwise, this should go onto the TODO list.)

-- 
    Robert J. Chassell                         
    bob@rattlesnake.com                         GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
    http://www.rattlesnake.com                  http://www.teak.cc

Re: Outline Mode and Outline Minor modes

[Stefan Monnier]

> should be renamed `Outline Minor Mode' and should deprecate Outline
> Mode and favor Outline Minor mode.

I agree that from my point of view, outline-minor-mode is much more used
than the major mode and that it deserves better documentation.  But note
that NEWS (among others) uses the outline-major-mode format, so it is used
actively in Emacs.


        Stefan

Re: Outline Mode and Outline Minor modes

[Richard Stallman]

    should be renamed `Outline Minor Mode' and should deprecate Outline
    Mode and favor Outline Minor mode.

I don't think so.  Outline mode is the basic feature.
Outline Minor mode is a more conceptually advanced variant.