Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap

[Dmitry Gutov <dmitry@gutov.dev>]

On 28/01/2024 16:25, Po Lu wrote:
> Dmitry Gutov <dmitry@gutov.dev> writes:
> 
>> Ah, no. Installing software and browsing packages are both activities
>> that most computer users are implicitly familiar with.
> 
> Reading is an activity most literate _humans_ are intimately familar
> with, but I'll humor you: the package list, in its present state as a
> list of compact one-line descriptions, is not the sort of graphical
> package manager computer users are well acquainted with.  The search
> facilities available in such package managers source their results from
> thorough descriptions provided by package authors at the time their
> packages are submitted, most unlike our cascade of package names and
> keywords.

Yeah, actually it could be a worthwhile addition. We have commands like 
package-menu-filter-by-description, but what they're actually filter by 
is the one-line summary, nor the full description from Commentary. This 
would require certain changes in the package archives, since currently 
those descriptions are fetched separately on-demand.

>> People's capabilities are not static, but designing features which
>> impose fewer requirements on such is likely to help more people,
>> altogether.
> 
> We are imposing no new requirements, but providing _new_ and _more
> helpful_ venues through which adaptive-wrap might be discovered and
> enabled.

I imagine the adaptive-wrap package will be removed from ELPA sooner or 
later. We might as well discuss the tradeoffs.

>>  From the menu? Options -> Manage Emacs Packages. Either way, the fact
> 
> Why, you have neglected to mention Option -> Line Wrapping in This
> Buffer -> Visual Wrap Prefix, complete with a tooltip describing its
> function.

This is another example where the user is supposed to recognize the 
feature by its short summary, right? "Visual Wrap Prefix Mode".

A the "tooltip describing its function" is

   Display continuation lines with visual context-dependent prefix

If you think it describes it well, seems like a good package summary?

>> that Emacs does have packages is a widely advertised fact, everywhere
>> online.
> 
> And why is the fact that Emacs has a manual not suitably advertised?  It
> is advertised on the splash screen, literally the first screen presented
> to a new Emacs user.

   Use this command and search the list for keywords

vs

   Open one of these big books and look for the thing you wanted

I wonder what would be considered easier (people go and Google instead).

>> And once you reach the packages' list, you can search across all of
>> them (that appear there) using a uniform approach.
> 
> No doubt, it will be an immeasurable relief to our users that the
> technique for searching the package list is uniform, despite never
> returning satisfactory results.  Over the course of my year-long tenure
> as a moderator of an Emacs instant messenger group with roughly 1000
> members, not once have I seen the package list credited with the
> discovery of a package shared in the group.

Your group seems to have some particular qualities that go across most 
of my experience, and those experiences I've seen conveyed on the web. 
Perhaps it has to do something with the particular ecosystem (it is a 
company which has SunOS installed somewhere, right?).

The packages list even has a specific feature that highlights the 
packages that have been added recently (since your last viewing). All in 
the name of discovery. And I've taken advantage of it many times myself.

>> I'm still unclear on what is missing from the summary, to be honest.
>>
>> The NEWS entry is more verbose, sure, but that should also apply when
>> the user finds a package based on the summary and clicks on it to read
>> the full description to verify if that's what they wanted to use.
> 
> How about "source code comments", "unbroken appearance", or any of the
> myriad of other applications for adaptive-wrap that users might seek
> solutions for?

These seem like words for additional context, but not the terms for 
describing the thing to search for. Or I misunderstand something.