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, Tom Tromey <tromey@redhat.com> wrote:
>
>> Most long-time Emacs users I talk to have a similar experience.  I
>> think this is one of the great joys of Emacs.
>>
>> On the minus side, discoverability remains a problem.  Sometimes I
>> wish I'd found those features years earlier.
>
> That's the problem I'm trying to address.
> If the list members could provide the 'clues' I'm more than willing
> to collate them, or perhaps we could use a wiki or some other web site
> to collect them?
>
> Ideas for an 'index' please? What form? Its the match of 'idea/usage'
> vs package name/variable/mode. Generally once you have the key words,
> emacs is sufficiently helpful?
>

As you will see from my other post, I think this already exists in that
most entries in the emacs manual (specifically the detailed node listing)
describe what the item does as part of the description associated with that
menu item.. Of course, there ar problems here in that we are dealing with a
system that is used in many different countries with different
interpretations of various terms (even within all the countries that use
English, you can find confusing variation in the use of words).

This doesn't mean it isn't a good idea to try alternatives that may help
overcome this limitation of spoken language. My recommendation would be to
put a page up on the emacs wiki. This would allow others, possibly from
different backgrounds or for whom english is a second language, to add
additional entries, examples or clarification. I find the emacs wiki a
great resource and often spend a few hours browsing it and learning new
techniques/ideas. Often, this involves using features I was aware of, but
in ways I had not considered. 

The only request I would make is to please include links to the relevant
manual entry rather than re-write or re-do what is in the manual. One of
the biggest areas of confusion that I see with emacs is all the out of date
pages that advise people to do exactly the wrong thing. These pages are
seldom as up-to-date as the emacs manual. So, for example, rather than
explain how to use auto-revert, just define what is meant by revert in
emacs terms and then point to the relevant manual section. 

regards,

Tim







-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au