From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Joe Corneli Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: emacs documentation for (La)TeX Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 15:14:59 -0600 Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1072127926 15571 80.91.224.253 (22 Dec 2003 21:18:46 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 21:18:46 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Dec 22 22:18:43 2003 Return-path: Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1AYXRr-0005Lj-00 for ; Mon, 22 Dec 2003 22:18:43 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1AYYMZ-0006ix-8T for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 22 Dec 2003 17:17:19 -0500 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.24) id 1AYYMG-0006iE-Ca for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 22 Dec 2003 17:17:00 -0500 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.24) id 1AYYLk-0006cz-BH for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 22 Dec 2003 17:16:59 -0500 Original-Received: from [146.6.139.124] (helo=dell3.ma.utexas.edu) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1AYYLj-0006cw-TY for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 22 Dec 2003 17:16:28 -0500 Original-Received: from linux183.ma.utexas.edu (mail@linux183.ma.utexas.edu [146.6.139.172]) by dell3.ma.utexas.edu (8.11.0.Beta3/8.10.2) with ESMTP id hBMLF0B11528; Mon, 22 Dec 2003 15:15:00 -0600 Original-Received: from jcorneli by linux183.ma.utexas.edu with local (Exim 3.36 #1 (Debian)) id 1AYXOF-0007cs-00; Mon, 22 Dec 2003 15:14:59 -0600 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org In-reply-to: (help-gnu-emacs-request@gnu.org) X-all-your-base-are-belong-to-us: You are on the way to destruction. X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:15521 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:15521 > I think the best approach is to write Texinfo documentation like > latex2e.texi. Indeed Michael Wiedmann is currently looking into exporting his DocBook XML documentation of LaTeX to texinfo format. But there is something very nice in my opinion about being able to get the documentation for Lisp functions with C-h f RET when you are writing code. Between info-look.el and a more robust latex texinfo manual, it looks like most of my questions about latex could be answered just as easily as my ELisp questions[0]. Except perhaps for links to the source, which may be the most useful feature of describe-function. Perhaps this feature could be added directly to the texinfo package (?), but that seems a bit non-standard. [0] In general I tend to prefer looking at the documentation of functions whose names I know -- for complicated questions (E.g. "how do I get the diary to work properly?") that have relatively simple answers, this often isn't as effective as looking in the manual. But it is a habit, and for simple questions it seems to be a very effective strategy. It might be that Emacs could do a better job of providing in-line documentation for high-level questions in the source files -- or maybe I just need to train myself to reflexively look in the manual instead of the code for these kinds of questions. At any rate, the reason I'm so keen on in-line help for latex functions is mostly my interest in better understanding low-level questions, where a link to the source together with a terse doc string is typically the most useful thing one can look at.