From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@is.elta.co.il>
Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel
Subject: Re: The minibuffer vs. Dialog Boxes (Re: Making XEmacs be more up-to-date)
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 09:06:36 +0300 (IDT)
Sender: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.1020424090159.4915D-100000@is>
References: <m2k7qymbos.fsf@sandman.balestra.org>
NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.gmane.org
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1019624975 4608 127.0.0.1 (24 Apr 2002 05:09:35 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 05:09:35 +0000 (UTC)
Cc: xemacs-design@xemacs.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org
Return-path: <emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org>
Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244])
	by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1 (Debian))
	id 170F27-0001CD-00
	for <emacs-devel@main.gmane.org>; Wed, 24 Apr 2002 07:09:35 +0200
Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([199.232.76.164])
	by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian))
	id 170F3d-0000NK-00
	for <emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org>; Wed, 24 Apr 2002 07:11:09 +0200
Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=fencepost.gnu.org)
	by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 3.34 #1 (Debian))
	id 170F1p-0003zC-00; Wed, 24 Apr 2002 01:09:17 -0400
Original-Received: from is.elta.co.il ([199.203.121.2])
	by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 3.34 #1 (Debian))
	id 170F0q-0003tw-00
	for <emacs-devel@gnu.org>; Wed, 24 Apr 2002 01:08:16 -0400
Original-Received: from is (is [199.203.121.2])
	by is.elta.co.il (8.9.3/8.8.8) with SMTP id JAA05271;
	Wed, 24 Apr 2002 09:06:36 +0300 (IDT)
X-Sender: eliz@is
Original-To: Brady Montz <bradym@balestra.org>
In-Reply-To: <m2k7qymbos.fsf@sandman.balestra.org>
Errors-To: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org
X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.9
Precedence: bulk
List-Help: <mailto:emacs-devel-request@gnu.org?subject=help>
List-Post: <mailto:emacs-devel@gnu.org>
List-Subscribe: <http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-devel>,
	<mailto:emacs-devel-request@gnu.org?subject=subscribe>
List-Id: Emacs development discussions. <emacs-devel.gnu.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-devel>,
	<mailto:emacs-devel-request@gnu.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://mail.gnu.org/pipermail/emacs-devel/>
Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:3156
X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:3156


On 23 Apr 2002, Brady Montz wrote:

> > Sounds good, but how does a user get into the ring in the first place?
> 
> Lessee, we currently have:
> 1. the help menu
> 2. the items on the splash page
> 
> those seem a good start. 

Yes, but I thought you were unhappy with the current UI that enters help, 
including the menu bar.  I thought you were suggesting something 
different...

> 1. a button on the toolbar and/or in the menu to describe the current modes.
> 2. "what's this?" tooltips or buttons.
> 3. a minor mode like eldoc that makes the symbols in your elisp files
>    clickable, just like we have for info and man pages. Click on a
>    symbol to find out more. 

...like this.

> "What's this?" might be particularly useful for the modeline. 

Emacs 21 implements some of that with tooltips that pop up depending on 
the area of the mode line where you place the mouse pointer.  For 
example, place it on the "%%" marker, and a tooltip will pop up saying 
"Read-only buffer, mouse-3 toggles".  I think this should be used in more 
parts of the display.