Re: mode-line under vc

[Dan Nicolaescu <dann@ics.uci.edu>]

Nick Roberts <nickrob@snap.net.nz> writes:

  > >  > 2) Do we really need to explain that "CVS" in the mode-line means
  > >  >   "under the CVS version control system" in the help-echo?  It's kind of
  > >  >   long and seems a bit repetitive, unlike explaining the difference between
  > >  >   ":" and "-" which _is_ obscure.
  > 
  > > The reason I added it is that it can happen that people are not
  > > familiar with some of the (now many) version control systems... Inside
  > > a company different projects can use different version control
  > > systems. It would be nice if we had the "pretty" name available: 
  > > SVN is actually Subversion
  > > HG is Mercurial
  > > (bzr is Bazaar?)
  > 
  > If the user has previously checked these files out, he is likely to know about
  > the version control system in question.  

That's not always the case, the code can just be in a shared place in
the file system.

  > If he doesn't know what SVN stands
  > for, then Subversion may not mean much either.  I think that tooltips should
  > just provide hints, not documentation.  If absolutely necessary the user can
  > Google for more information.

I believe that we should try to reduce the amount of googling
necessary, we should give as much information as possible in a concise
form. I'm inclined to believe that this qualifies, but if you feel
strongly about it, just make the change. 


  >  >   > 3) Its not clear what VC is in "mouse-1: VC Menu".  Replacing it with
  >  >   >  "mouse-1: version control" would be self-explanatory and help
  >  >   >  compensate for the proposed change in 2).
  >  > 
  >  > IMO the "menu" should appear there, to make it very obvious what you
  >  > get, if you use mouse-1
  > 
  > When the mouse is over the mode-name clicking mouse-1 pops up a menu, yet the
  > tooltip just says "mouse-1: major mode".

And IMHO that is confusing, it would be better to say "major mode menu".