From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Improved help from minibuffer prompts Date: 16 Apr 2004 23:55:11 +0200 Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1082146419 10615 80.91.224.253 (16 Apr 2004 20:13:39 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 20:13:39 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org, =?utf-8?b?U3RlZmFuIFJlaWNow7Zy?= Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Fri Apr 16 22:13:27 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1BEZiJ-0002et-00 for ; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 22:13:27 +0200 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1BEZiI-0002li-00 for ; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 22:13:26 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1BEZhQ-00015R-0e for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 16:12:32 -0400 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1BEZhB-00012n-JS for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 16:12:17 -0400 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1BEZgd-0000k3-0A for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 16:12:14 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.41.8] (helo=mx20.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (TLSv1:DES-CBC3-SHA:168) (Exim 4.30) id 1BEZeY-0007Uv-KJ; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 16:09:34 -0400 Original-Received: from [195.41.46.235] (helo=pfepa.post.tele.dk) by mx20.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1BEZQz-0001Ji-AO; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 15:55:33 -0400 Original-Received: from kfs-l.imdomain.dk.cua.dk (0x503e2644.bynxx3.adsl-dhcp.tele.dk [80.62.38.68]) by pfepa.post.tele.dk (Postfix) with SMTP id 96C2A47FE64; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 21:55:25 +0200 (CEST) Original-To: rms@gnu.org In-Reply-To: Original-Lines: 27 User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3.50 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.4 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:21796 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:21796 Richard Stallman writes: > > You didn't say which function you mean, but according to the code > > it looks like the entire doc string of the command that invoked > > the minibuffer is the help string you use. I don't think > > that will be very natural. > > I think it is convenient. Every interactive function has already a > docstring. > > The doc string for the function is not designed to explain how to > enter a specific argument. It is the wrong text for this job. But it is better than no text -- so it would be nice to have a way to specify a specific help text, but in case no such text has been provided, just showing the function docstring would be a reasonable fallback. > > When I type M-x grep and get a prompt and I am not sure, what I am > asked here, I can just get the help for the function grep. > > That might be useful, but it isn't the same idea. The idea was to > tell the user about the argument being entered, wasn't it? The doc string is supposed to describe the arguments, so it is more useful than no help.