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From: Uday S Reddy <uDOTsDOTreddy@cs.bham.ac.uk>
To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Failing to see the allure of Emacs
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:32:23 +0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <hob4ve$pgc$1@north.jnrs.ja.net> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <w6udnRPpMNlDZTXWnZ2dnUVZ8vWdnZ2d@posted.visi>

akaiser@visi.com wrote:

> 
> Readily usable documentation would include complete reference
> information for every function, variable, and macro bundled with emacs
> at every release.  

It generally does have every function/variable that the developers want the users to know about.  (The omitted features are probably too hairy, or perhaps experimental.)

The authors of various contributed packages often don't write documentation.  I think they should, but that is how the world works.  Since all of this free software, we can't make too many demands on the contributors.  But, in reality, even such contributors generally put helpful usage info at the top of the elisp files.

> It would provide some way better than string search
> to look for related concepts.  And it would be generously illustrated.

"related concepts"?  I am not sure what you mean.  The info manual does have plenty of cross-references, which are presumably for related concepts.  

The info manual is generally meant to be read linearly, one chapter at a time.  You skip over the details on first reading, and come back to them if and when you need them.  If you try to read the manual one function at a time, I am sure you will get nowhere.

Cheers,
Uday


  parent reply	other threads:[~2010-03-23 19:32 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 55+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2010-03-21 19:02 Failing to see the allure of Emacs Daniel
2010-03-21 20:22 ` David Kastrup
2010-03-21 20:47 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2010-03-21 21:00 ` akaiser
2010-03-21 21:26   ` Daniel
2010-03-21 22:16     ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2010-03-22  4:05       ` Uday S Reddy
2010-03-21 22:21   ` David Kastrup
2010-03-23 17:22     ` akaiser
2010-03-23 17:52       ` Jeff Clough
2010-03-23 19:10         ` akaiser
2010-03-23 19:32       ` Uday S Reddy [this message]
2010-03-23 23:00       ` David Kastrup
2010-03-24 21:40         ` Tim X
2010-03-24 22:00         ` akaiser
2010-03-25  0:28           ` Jason Rumney
2010-03-25  1:03           ` Jay Belanger
2010-03-25  1:27           ` despen
2010-03-25  8:42           ` Tim X
2010-03-25  9:19             ` akaiser
2010-03-25 10:01               ` David Kastrup
2010-03-25 10:09                 ` akaiser
2010-03-27 20:59               ` Giorgos Keramidas
2010-04-07  5:36                 ` David Kastrup
2010-03-25  9:41             ` akaiser
2010-03-25 12:17               ` Tim Landscheidt
2010-03-25 12:24                 ` akaiser
2010-05-04 19:03                   ` Lennart Borgman
     [not found]                   ` <mailman.28.1272999835.29092.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2010-05-05  7:15                     ` David Kastrup
2010-05-05 20:40                       ` Stefan Monnier
2010-03-25 12:45               ` Jay Belanger
2010-03-25 18:31               ` Uday S Reddy
2010-03-25 14:07           ` Ted Zlatanov
2010-03-25 14:49             ` David Kastrup
2010-03-26  4:14           ` Galen Boyer
2010-05-05 17:27           ` Joel J. Adamson
2010-03-21 21:02 ` Jeff Clough
2010-03-21 22:09   ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2010-03-21 22:35     ` B. T. Raven
2010-03-21 22:45       ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2010-03-22  0:21         ` Jeff Clough
2010-03-22  4:45           ` B. T. Raven
2010-05-22  2:38       ` Joseph Brenner
2010-03-21 22:58     ` John Bokma
2010-04-20 13:04   ` Jim Diamond
2010-04-20 17:15     ` Andreas Politz
2010-04-20 17:34       ` Jeff Clough
2010-04-21 14:26       ` Jim Diamond
2010-04-20 17:36     ` Glenn Morris
2010-04-21 14:31       ` Jim Diamond
2010-04-21 18:23         ` Stefan Monnier
2010-04-22 15:27           ` Uday S Reddy
2010-04-20 22:37     ` Tim X
2010-03-21 22:41 ` despen
2010-03-22 11:59 ` Stefan Kamphausen

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