Re: My emacs was upgraded and I am a novice again

[Tim X <timx@nospam.dev.null>]

"Dave Pawson" <dave.pawson@gmail.com> writes:

> On 21/09/2007, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
>
>> How did you come up with the string "novice" as something to look for?
>> The Emacs manual describes this feature as "disabled command", and
>> both "M-x apropos disabled" and "i disabled" in the manual find quite
>> a few hits.
>
> For me, that sums up one of the quirks of emacs. Its way of hiding
> its light under the proverbial bushel.
>
> Each time I come across one of these features (e.g. auto-revert-mode yesterday)
> I note it down and am likely to use it.
>
> Has anyone documented the feature list (without going on to extensions)
> that is present in the 'out of the box' emacs?
> I swear I could use emacs for 20 years and still find out new things
> that I could find useful.
>
> RTFM won't cut it Tim <chuckles/>.
>
> I'm not even sure how such a list might be documented. I'd go looking for
> auto-revert-mode under 'refresh' or some such.
>
> Is it worthwhile? Probably not if you're content with emacs.
>

Hi Dave,

You probably don't want to hear this, but your so called feature list
exists in the manual, its just not called a feature list. Open the emacs
manual and scroll down to the detailed node listing. This in effect is a
summary of emacs features that links to the sections of the manual they are
covered in. 

In the detailed node listing you will find the following section -

File Handling

* File Names::          How to type and edit file-name arguments.
* Visiting::            Visiting a file prepares Emacs to edit the file.
* Saving::              Saving makes your changes permanent.
* Reverting::           Reverting cancels all the changes not saved.
* Autorevert::          Auto Reverting non-file buffers.
* Auto Save::           Auto Save periodically protects against loss of data.
* File Aliases::        Handling multiple names for one file.
* Version Control::     Version control systems (RCS, CVS and SCCS).
* Directories::         Creating, deleting, and listing file directories.
 Comparing Files::     Finding where two files differ.
* Diff Mode::           Editing diff output.
* Misc File Ops::       Other things you can do on files.
* Compressed Files::    Accessing compressed files.
* File Archives::       Operating on tar, zip, jar etc. archive files.
* Remote Files::        Accessing files on other sites.
* Quoted File Names::   Quoting special characters in file names.
* File Name Cache::     Completion against a list of files you often use.
* File Conveniences::   Convenience Features for Finding Files.
* Filesets::            Handling sets of files.

so there it is, a list of features in standard emacs that deals with file
handling, including a menu item for revert and auto-revert. It even defines
what evert means in case your not familiar with the term. I really can't
see how it can be made any clearer.  

Even the answer to the OPs original question appears to be covered on the
first page of the manual entry e.g. 

,----
|    When you edit a file that changes automatically and frequently--for
| example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may be
| useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you, whenever you
| visit the file again with `C-x C-f'.
| 
|    To request this behavior, set the variable `revert-without-query' to
| a list of regular expressions.  When a file name matches one of these
| regular expressions, `find-file' and `revert-buffer' will revert it
| automatically if it has changed--provided the buffer itself is not
| modified.  (If you have edited the text, it would be wrong to discard
| your changes.)
`----

It then goes into more details regarding three different auto-revert
mechanisms that are available. 

To be honest and not trying to be rude, I still feel the "problem" is
people wanting answers without doing the reading/work. In the current
example, I get a very strong feeling the OP encountered a change in
behavior and immediately fired off a question to the NG without checking
the documentation. Not only are things (IMO) clearly laid out in the emacs
manual, therre is even a section in the NEWS-22 file entitled **
Auto-Revert changes 

Whenever anyone observes changes in behavior in a new version of emacs, the
very first place they should look is in the NEWS and PROBLEMS file for the
version they have upgraded to. In fact, when I upgrade to a new version of
emacs, I always check the NEWS file to see what new features have been
added and what may have changed that will impact on how I do things or
possibly break some of my own elisp code. If I run into any problems, the
first place I check is the PROBLEMS file to see if it is a known issue. 

So, I'm afraid the answer is still RTFM. Even if we created another file
called FEATURES or "Emacs-out-of-the-box-features" or whatever, I don't
think it will make any difference - people still won't read them. The real
problem here is what some want is some sort of osmotic knowledge transfer
that requires no additional work for the user - you somehow open the editor
and all required knowledge just transfers itself to the user with no
concious effort on the users behalf. 

So  Dave, guess what, my advice .....RTFM!

regards,

Tim

-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au