From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: [PATCH] Unify fn and var help to make learning elisp a little easier Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:09:30 -0500 Message-ID: References: <1354820376.62901.YahooMailClassic@web141102.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1354846174 12929 80.91.229.3 (7 Dec 2012 02:09:34 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2012 02:09:34 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Kelly Dean Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Dec 07 03:09:48 2012 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1TgnNr-0007DV-Ox for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 07 Dec 2012 03:09:47 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:44222 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TgnNf-0004Qg-Ld for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:09:35 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:39676) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TgnNd-0004Qa-6T for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:09:34 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TgnNc-0002Z3-5f for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:09:33 -0500 Original-Received: from ironport2-out.teksavvy.com ([206.248.154.182]:39915) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TgnNc-0002Yz-1v for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:09:32 -0500 X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: Av0EAG6Zu09soXOY/2dsb2JhbABEtBGBCIIVAQEEAVYXDAULCzQSFBgNJIgcBboJkEQDiEKacYFYgwc X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.75,637,1330923600"; d="scan'208";a="209260923" Original-Received: from 108-161-115-152.dsl.teksavvy.com (HELO pastel.home) ([108.161.115.152]) by ironport2-out.teksavvy.com with ESMTP/TLS/ADH-AES256-SHA; 06 Dec 2012 21:09:31 -0500 Original-Received: by pastel.home (Postfix, from userid 20848) id D9B8058F5C; Thu, 6 Dec 2012 21:09:30 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: <1354820376.62901.YahooMailClassic@web141102.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> (Kelly Dean's message of "Thu, 6 Dec 2012 10:59:36 -0800 (PST)") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3.50 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 206.248.154.182 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:155328 Archived-At: > A new user will often not remember whether a symbol he has in mind > is a function or variable, so he doesn't know whether to use C-h f or C-h > v to get help for it. A command that gives you help on "any symbol" would make a lot of sense, yes. Actually, there is already a function for that, called `help-xref-interned', so all we need is to give it a nicer name (e.g. describe-symbol), and an `interactive' spec which provides completion. > BTW am I supposed to send little things like this to emacs-devel, or to > bug-gnu-emacs, or just post on the wiki? Either is fine. Stefan