From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Stefan_Reich=F6r?= Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Improved help from minibuffer prompts Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 08:05:44 +0200 Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: References: <87y8oxh3hp.fsf@sno.mundell.ukfsn.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1082095690 4637 80.91.224.253 (16 Apr 2004 06:08:10 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2004 06:08:10 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Fri Apr 16 08:08:01 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 1BEMW9-0006UB-00 for ; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 08:08:01 +0200 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1BEMW9-0008U9-00 for ; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 08:08:01 +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 1BEMUg-0002mw-EO for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 02:06:30 -0400 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1BEMUZ-0002kC-Dy for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 02:06:23 -0400 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1BEMU3-0002b8-J3 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 02:06:22 -0400 Original-Received: from [140.78.161.123] (helo=proxy.riic.at) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (TLSv1:DES-CBC3-SHA:168) (Exim 4.30) id 1BEMU3-0002af-0q for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 02:05:51 -0400 Original-Received: from nanni.riic.uni-linz.ac.at.riic.at (nanni.riic.uni-linz.ac.at [140.78.161.79]) by proxy.riic.at (8.12.7/8.12.7/SuSE Linux 0.6) with ESMTP id i3G65i8a019545 for ; Fri, 16 Apr 2004 08:05:44 +0200 Original-To: emacs-devel In-Reply-To: <87y8oxh3hp.fsf@sno.mundell.ukfsn.org> (Matthew Mundell's message of "15 Apr 2004 12:42:10 +0100") User-Agent: Gnus/5.110002 (No Gnus v0.2) Emacs/21.3.50 (berkeley-unix) X-Virus-Scanned: by AMaViS - amavis-milter (http://www.amavis.org/) 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:21730 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:21730 Hi Matthew! > Stefan Reich=F6r writes: > >> Hi! >>=20 >> I am currently working on xtla.el (the arch interface for emacs). >>=20 >> In my mode the user is often asked some questions in the >> minibuffer. Sometimes the questions need some more >> explanations. So I decided to put the needed help in the >> function's docstring. > > Here's a function called `question' which may be of use. > > It allows the responses to an interactive question to be defined, > including a help response and associated help string. The patch > includes a change to `shell-command' to use `question', in the way > suggested for the `compile' command by Dan Jacobson (in the attached > mail). This allows `shell-command' to start concurrent asynchronous > shell commands. > > The function `may-y-or-n-p' may also be useful. > > Note that `question' will need dialog popup additions to be better > analogous to yes-or-no-p. I think, that your function is useful, however as far as I can see, it allows only a fixed given number of answers. I think that your question function should also be added to emacs. My proposal allows to get help at every minibuffer prompt without the need to explicitly add the help string. --=20 Stefan.