From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: docstrings and elisp reference Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2017 18:18:51 +0300 Message-ID: <834lvq8q3o.fsf@gnu.org> References: <0BB64F35-233A-471F-B99F-51F96C4E6CCB@gmail.com> <8360g99n07.fsf@gnu.org> <86lgp4q2xa.fsf@stephe-leake.org> <7acc7d4f-23cc-4b6a-b062-ef92805e465b@default> <878tl3rz38.fsf@x230.lts> Reply-To: Eli Zaretskii NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1496935208 27835 195.159.176.226 (8 Jun 2017 15:20:08 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2017 15:20:08 +0000 (UTC) Cc: stephen_leake@stephe-leake.org, drew.adams@oracle.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Etienne =?utf-8?Q?Prud=E2=80=99homme?= Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Jun 08 17:20:02 2017 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1dIzE9-0006sj-G8 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 08 Jun 2017 17:20:01 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:50205 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dIzEE-0000mt-MD for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 08 Jun 2017 11:20:06 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:48791) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dIzD9-0000i9-16 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 08 Jun 2017 11:18:59 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dIzD4-00030M-9D for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 08 Jun 2017 11:18:59 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:56721) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1dIzD4-00030I-5h; Thu, 08 Jun 2017 11:18:54 -0400 Original-Received: from 84.94.185.246.cable.012.net.il ([84.94.185.246]:1251 helo=home-c4e4a596f7) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtpsa (TLS1.2:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:256) (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1dIzD3-0003mP-Dp; Thu, 08 Jun 2017 11:18:53 -0400 In-reply-to: <878tl3rz38.fsf@x230.lts> (message from Etienne =?utf-8?Q?Pru?= =?utf-8?Q?d=E2=80=99homme?= on Wed, 07 Jun 2017 22:29:47 -0400) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.2.x-3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:215521 Archived-At: > From: Etienne Prud’homme > Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2017 22:29:47 -0400 > Cc: Stephen Leake , > emacs-devel > > However, I also think Jean-Christophe makes a good point about > documentation generation. Not with duplication, but semantic support. > While documentation support is awesome in Emacs with GNU libraries, it’s > not always so with third-party documentation tools. I’m thinking about > Zeal (and to a very limited extent Dash that is not free). Are there any other similar free tools? Zeal seems a one-man project, that is not developed too actively. What's more, at least the docs it has for Bash and ELisp are exactly the respective Texinfo manuals, with the same text and the same node structure. What is the advantage of using a different browser for the exact same text? > Those tools are highly effective for semantic indexation for newcomers > since they offer a simple interface for hundred FLOSS libraries. GNU > projects are almost nonexistent. Most of the docs offered with Zeal are about languages and other similar systems, so docs of GNU packages among them is more like the odd one out than the rule. And given the contents, which is exactly the Info manual, I don't see why bother. Am I missing something? And I don't think I understand what you mean by "semantic indexation". Can you explain that using as example the ELisp manual available for Zeal? > I’ve been trying in the past to port GNU projects documentation and I > finally gave up. I find Texinfo to be very limited when it comes to > semantic support. It’s really hard to extract meaningful definitions > from texi files. This should be discussed on the Texinfo list, not here. The current Texinfo translator is highly customizable, so it could be that it can be adapted to these needs much better. And the fact that the 2 GNU manuals there are obviously translations of Texinfo seems to contradict what you say here.