Red `*' in *info* menus?

Red `*' in *info* menus?

[J Krugman]

In the menus that come up when I do "C-h i", each available choice
(subtopic) starts with an asterisk.  Most of these asterisks are
rendered in the usual foreground color, but a few of them are
rendered in red.  What do the red asterisks mean?

And, more importantly, how could I have answered this question for
myself using the online info system?  I searched for "[^a-z]red[^a-z]"
the "* Info:  (emacs-21/info)" subtree but nothing came up.

Thanks!

jill


-- 
To  s&e^n]d  me  m~a}i]l  r%e*m?o\v[e  bit from my a|d)d:r{e:s]s.

Re: Red `*' in *info* menus?

[Kevin Rodgers]

J Krugman wrote:
 > In the menus that come up when I do "C-h i", each available choice
 > (subtopic) starts with an asterisk.  Most of these asterisks are
 > rendered in the usual foreground color, but a few of them are
 > rendered in red.  What do the red asterisks mean?

 From the Expert node of the Info manual:

|    If your display supports multiple fonts, and you are using Emacs'
| Info mode to read Info files, the `*' for the fifth menu item stands
| out, either in color or in some other attribute, such as underline, and
| so is the `*' for the ninth item; this makes it easy to see at a glance
| which number to use for an item.

 > And, more importantly, how could I have answered this question for
 > myself using the online info system?  I searched for "[^a-z]red[^a-z]"
 > the "* Info:  (emacs-21/info)" subtree but nothing came up.

Here's what I did: `M-x list-faces-display', then scan the *Faces*
buffer for Info faces that are red; then click on info-menu-5 to see its
doc string:

| Face for the fifth and nineth `*' in an Info menu.

-- 
Kevin Rodgers

Re: Red `*' in *info* menus?

[J Krugman]

In <40B3DA25.80202@yahoo.com> Kevin Rodgers <ihs_4664@yahoo.com> writes:

>J Krugman wrote:
> > In the menus that come up when I do "C-h i", each available choice
> > (subtopic) starts with an asterisk.  Most of these asterisks are
> > rendered in the usual foreground color, but a few of them are
> > rendered in red.  What do the red asterisks mean?

> From the Expert node of the Info manual:

>|    If your display supports multiple fonts, and you are using Emacs'
>| Info mode to read Info files, the `*' for the fifth menu item stands
>| out, either in color or in some other attribute, such as underline, and
>| so is the `*' for the ninth item; this makes it easy to see at a glance
>| which number to use for an item.

Every multiple of 5 would make sense, but the 5-th and the 9-th???
That's so *weird* !!!  (Or there's a big-time Beethoven fan behind
this code.)

> > And, more importantly, how could I have answered this question for
> > myself using the online info system?  I searched for "[^a-z]red[^a-z]"
> > the "* Info:  (emacs-21/info)" subtree but nothing came up.

>Here's what I did: `M-x list-faces-display', then scan the *Faces*
>buffer for Info faces that are red; then click on info-menu-5 to see its
>doc string:

>| Face for the fifth and nineth `*' in an Info menu.

That's a good trick to know.  Thanks!

jill

-- 
To  s&e^n]d  me  m~a}i]l  r%e*m?o\v[e  bit from my a|d)d:r{e:s]s.

Re: Red `*' in *info* menus?

[Björn Lindström]

J Krugman <jkrugman345@yahbitoo.com> writes:

> Every multiple of 5 would make sense, but the 5-th and the 9-th???
> That's so *weird* !!!  (Or there's a big-time Beethoven fan behind
> this code.)

Or maybe a guitarist. (Or would that be 5, 7, 9 - I dunno...)

-- 
Björn Lindström <bkhl@elektrubadur.se>
http://bkhl.elektrubadur.se/

Re: Red `*' in *info* menus?

[Ryan Bowman]

> 
> > From the Expert node of the Info manual:
> 
> >|    If your display supports multiple fonts, and
> you are using Emacs'
> >| Info mode to read Info files, the `*' for the
> fifth menu item stands
> >| out, either in color or in some other attribute,
> such as underline, and
> >| so is the `*' for the ninth item; this makes it
> easy to see at a glance
> >| which number to use for an item.
> 

So why doesn't it do this in my emacs?  The face is
defined, and my display supports multiple fonts (at
least I assume it does), but all the stars are the
same color.
Emacs 21.3.50.1

=====
---
Ryan

The door at the end of the tunnel is far too small...
 - Closing In 2.0 - Don't Be Afraid - Information Society - insoc.org
---


	
		
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Re: Red `*' in *info* menus?

[nick]

J Krugman <jkrugman345@yahbitoo.com> writes:

> In <40B3DA25.80202@yahoo.com> Kevin Rodgers <ihs_4664@yahoo.com> writes:
>
>>J Krugman wrote:
>> > ...  What do the red asterisks mean?
>
>> From the Expert node of the Info manual:
>
>>|    If your display supports multiple fonts, and you are using Emacs'
>>| Info mode to read Info files, the `*' for the fifth menu item stands
>>| out, either in color or in some other attribute, such as underline, and
>>| so is the `*' for the ninth item; this makes it easy to see at a glance
>>| which number to use for an item.
>
> Every multiple of 5 would make sense, but the 5-th and the 9-th???
> That's so *weird* !!!  (Or there's a big-time Beethoven fan behind
> this code.)
>

Not *that* weird: keys '1'..'9' are shortcuts to the corresponding
menu entry.  There are only 9 of them, so it does not make any sense
to go further.  The fifth and the ninth are convenient markers and you
can interpolate for the others. But for longer menus, you have to
do it the long way - no shortcuts.

>> > And, more importantly, how could I have answered this question for
>> > myself using the online info system?  I searched for "[^a-z]red[^a-z]"
>> > the "* Info:  (emacs-21/info)" subtree but nothing came up.
>
>>Here's what I did: `M-x list-faces-display', then scan the *Faces*
>>buffer for Info faces that are red; then click on info-menu-5 to see its
>>doc string:
>
>>| Face for the fifth and nineth `*' in an Info menu.
>

Alternatively, you can position the cursor at the red asterisk and do
M-x list-text-properties-at (or, equivalently, Menu->Edit->Text
Properties->List Properties) which will tell you that the face is info-menu-5.
M-x apropos<RET>info-menu-5<RET> will get you the above information.

-- 
nick  (nicholas dot dokos at hp dot com)

Re: Red `*' in *info* menus?

[Michael Schierl]

J Krugman <jkrugman345@yahbitoo.com> writes:

> Every multiple of 5 would make sense, but the 5-th and the 9-th???
> That's so *weird* !!!  (Or there's a big-time Beethoven fan behind
> this code.)

Why? You can open entries 0 to 9 by numbers, so entry#9 should be
marked (so that you know that you can stop counting entries if you
want to jump to a "higher" one (but use either `m' or the cursor keys
to select). Marking "higher" entries is of no real use. According to
some studies, most humans are able to "count" up to 4 similar things
by just having a look at them and not really counting them¹ - so the
"8" undistinguisable items above are too many. So you have to mark
another entry as well. It seems that #5 was most intuitive.

BTW: I noticed that in the "beta" Emacs I use for Gnus here (because
it supports images), #3, #6 and #9 are marked... Dunno if that is the
same in current CVS versions.

Michael

¹ if you look at 4 stars quickly and then look somewhere else, most
peoply know that there have been 4 stars. If you look at 5 stars and
then somewhere else, most people are not sure if they were five or six
stars.

Re: Red `*' in *info* menus?

[Alan Mackenzie]

Michael Schierl <schierlm-usenet@gmx.de> wrote on Thu, 27 May 2004
12:08:56 +0200:

> if you look at 4 stars quickly and then look somewhere else, most
> peoply know that there have been 4 stars. If you look at 5 stars and
> then somewhere else, most people are not sure if they were five or six
> stars.

4?  Isn't this number usually reckoned to be 5.   I certainly believe I
can instantly recognise 5.  There are 5 lines on a music notation staff.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Munich, Germany)
Email: aacm@muuc.dee; to decode, wherever there is a repeated letter
(like "aa"), remove half of them (leaving, say, "a").

Re: Red `*' in *info* menus?

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Kevin Rodgers <ihs_4664@yahoo.com>
> Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help
> Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 17:43:33 -0600
> 
>  > And, more importantly, how could I have answered this question for
>  > myself using the online info system?  I searched for "[^a-z]red[^a-z]"
>  > the "* Info:  (emacs-21/info)" subtree but nothing came up.
> 
> Here's what I did: `M-x list-faces-display', then scan the *Faces*
> buffer for Info faces that are red; then click on info-menu-5 to see its
> doc string:
> 
> | Face for the fifth and nineth `*' in an Info menu.

Actually, there's probably a need for a well-thought index entry
pointing to that place in the Info mode's manual.