Re: Emacs Manual topics to remove?

["Miles Bader" <miles@gnu.org>]

On 3/14/06, Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com> wrote:
> Here are some more candidates for xtras, in addition to those already
> identified by others:
...
> If space permits, these should not be moved out, but if space is tight for
> the printed manual, they are candidates.

I think clearly we don't want to eliminate all those modes from the
main manual, because some of the specialized modes are important parts
of emacs, because they are often used by its primary audience, or are
historically significant.

Some things from your list that I think should _not_ be deleted:

   * all mail stuff and all news stuff (including gnus)

Sending mail is an important everyday function for most users, so this
clearly should stay (Gnus has only a short section in the main manual
anyway).

   * all calendar and diary stuff

If the calendar manual is large, maybe it could be moved to a separate
manual, and replaced by a short "basic calendar usage" section in main
manual, but I think this function is often used by many people, so it
shouldn't be deleted entirely.

   * version contol (maybe)

No, this is quite important for many users.

   * all language modes: C, Fortran, Tex, Nroff, ASM, ...

C mode should definitely stay -- it's an important part of emacs for
Emacs' main user base, and morever is something that people often want
to customize.

   * running debuggers (GUD)

This is also very important, it should stay.

   * international stuff

This is of _major_ importance to a large proportion of Emacs' users;
Emacs great support of non-ASCII text is one of its major strengths,

    * AntiNews

Both short and funny.  Should stay.

   * OS-specific stuff (MS Windows, Mac,...), except for basic Unix/GNU-Linux
stuff like man and grep (which is not grouped as OS-specific anyway)

I dunno; are the mac/windows sections long?

-miles

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