Re: discoverability, better defaults and which-key in Emacs

[Dmitry Gutov <dmitry@gutov.dev>]

On 03/02/2024 15:40, Philip Kaludercic wrote:
> Po Lu<luangruo@yahoo.com>  writes:
> 
>> Jeremy Bryant<jb@jeremybryant.net>  writes:
>>
>>> Here is a suggestion - include which-key in core and potentially enable
>>> by for new users.
>>>
>>> I understand it is in ELPA already.
>>>
>>> Author Justin has expressed openness to the idea in
>>> https://github.com/justbur/emacs-which-key/issues/355
>> I don't think enabling it by default is all that desirable, since its
>> popups are far more intrusive than keystrokes are when echoed, but
>> moving it to core is a decent idea.
> I second this concern, it also promotes the inefficient practice of
> inspecting keymaps by waiting for the idle timer to be triggered.

What if instead of having the help on a timer, the timer would add a 
small hint in the echo about how to invoke help (i.e. press C-h)?

The interface for displaying help could be which-key (it seems to look 
pretty enough), or just the current 'C-h' help, depending on the settings.

The result, though, is that everybody learns to press 'C-h' when they 
want to explore what the current prefix map contains and not just wait 
for the timer.