From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: "What's This?" in Describe submenu Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 22:53:51 +0300 Message-ID: References: <4308398B.60401@gmx.at> Reply-To: Eli Zaretskii NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1124740891 11680 80.91.229.2 (22 Aug 2005 20:01:31 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 20:01:31 +0000 (UTC) Cc: rudalics@gmx.at, emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Aug 22 22:01:29 2005 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1E7ISR-0002Oa-Jt for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 22 Aug 2005 21:59:48 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1E7IWB-0001oI-Du for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 22 Aug 2005 16:03:39 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1E7IRB-0007tk-SJ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 22 Aug 2005 15:58:30 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1E7IR9-0007sI-NT for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 22 Aug 2005 15:58:29 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1E7IR9-0007rc-D4 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 22 Aug 2005 15:58:27 -0400 Original-Received: from [192.114.186.20] (helo=nitzan.inter.net.il) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1E7INu-00035N-0N for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 22 Aug 2005 15:55:06 -0400 Original-Received: from HOME-C4E4A596F7 (IGLD-80-230-56-35.inter.net.il [80.230.56.35]) by nitzan.inter.net.il (MOS 3.6.5-GR) with ESMTP id BFQ82213 (AUTH halo1); Mon, 22 Aug 2005 22:53:49 +0300 (IDT) Original-To: storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) In-reply-to: (storm@cua.dk) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:42322 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:42322 > From: storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) > Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 09:58:45 +0200 > Cc: martin rudalics , emacs-devel@gnu.org > > In its current form, it does IN NO WAY resemble what a Windoze user > would expect from the "What's this" function. I disagree. I think it comes reasonably close, see below. In any case, your ``IN NO WAY resembles'' is, IMO, a gross exaggeration, unless I'm missing something important. > When you click on the "What's this" function in Windoze (typically not > available as a menu item, but as a [?] icon), the cursor changes shape > to an arrow with a question mark, and then the user can (in principle) > click on anything in the application window to get help for that item > (typically an input field). Agreed. > So it gives help for _visible_items_, not key bindings! In other GUI applications, perhaps. But in Emacs, most ``visible items'' _are_ key bindings. A click on a mode line is treated like a (fictitious) key [mode-line down-mouse-1], a click on the "Customize" tool-bar button is treated like [tool-bar customize], etc. When you click on something in Emacs after selecting "What's This?", we display the description of what that click does, which IMHO is close to the explanations popped up by Windows. So, to me it sounds like we do something very similar to what you described, with 2 notable exceptions: the change in mouse pointer shape, and the fact that the help text is not displayed in a tooltip. Am I missing something?