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* Reference to ‘alist’ in Emacs Lisp Manual without previous explanation
@ 2020-10-22  5:40 Pankaj Jangid
  2020-10-22  6:42 ` Subject: " Alfred M. Szmidt
  2020-10-22 13:05 ` Eli Zaretskii
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Pankaj Jangid @ 2020-10-22  5:40 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Emacs Developers

I am reading the Emacs Lisp Manual from beginning and
sequencially. Found reference to ‘alist’ in section 2.4.12 Hash Table
Type without any previous explanation.

Either a brief summary should be provided before this, probably near
2.4.6 Cons Cell and List Types or a cross-reference should be added.

Regards

-- Pankaj



^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread

* Subject: Re: Reference to ‘alist’ in Emacs Lisp Manual  without previous explanation 
  2020-10-22  5:40 Reference to ‘alist’ in Emacs Lisp Manual without previous explanation Pankaj Jangid
@ 2020-10-22  6:42 ` Alfred M. Szmidt
  2020-10-22 13:05 ` Eli Zaretskii
  1 sibling, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Alfred M. Szmidt @ 2020-10-22  6:42 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Pankaj Jangid; +Cc: emacs-devel

[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
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   I am reading the Emacs Lisp Manual from beginning and
   sequencially. Found reference to ‘alist’ in section 2.4.12 Hash Table
   Type without any previous explanation.

If you look up the term in the index, you will get the right result
for it.  "i alist RET" in the Info reader which goes the the overall
chapter on alists.



^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread

* Re: Reference to ‘alist’ in Emacs Lisp Manual without previous explanation
  2020-10-22  5:40 Reference to ‘alist’ in Emacs Lisp Manual without previous explanation Pankaj Jangid
  2020-10-22  6:42 ` Subject: " Alfred M. Szmidt
@ 2020-10-22 13:05 ` Eli Zaretskii
  2020-10-22 15:31   ` Drew Adams
  2020-10-23  7:22   ` Pankaj Jangid
  1 sibling, 2 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Eli Zaretskii @ 2020-10-22 13:05 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Pankaj Jangid; +Cc: emacs-devel

> From: Pankaj Jangid <pankaj@codeisgreat.org>
> Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2020 11:10:21 +0530
> 
> I am reading the Emacs Lisp Manual from beginning and
> sequencially. Found reference to ‘alist’ in section 2.4.12 Hash Table
> Type without any previous explanation.
> 
> Either a brief summary should be provided before this, probably near
> 2.4.6 Cons Cell and List Types or a cross-reference should be added.

If you are reading the manual in order, you should have read 2.4.6.3
"Association List Type", where "alist" is explained, before you got to
2.4.12.  How come you didn't see that?



^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread

* RE: Reference to ‘alist’ in Emacs Lisp Manual without previous explanation
  2020-10-22 13:05 ` Eli Zaretskii
@ 2020-10-22 15:31   ` Drew Adams
  2020-10-23  7:22   ` Pankaj Jangid
  1 sibling, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Drew Adams @ 2020-10-22 15:31 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Eli Zaretskii, Pankaj Jangid; +Cc: emacs-devel

> > I am reading the Emacs Lisp Manual from beginning and
> > sequencially. Found reference to ‘alist’ in section 2.4.12 Hash Table
> > Type without any previous explanation.
> >
> > Either a brief summary should be provided before this, probably near
> > 2.4.6 Cons Cell and List Types or a cross-reference should be added.
> 
> If you are reading the manual in order, you should have read 2.4.6.3
> "Association List Type", where "alist" is explained, before you got to
> 2.4.12.  How come you didn't see that?

Yes, "if".  Aside from whether Pankaj should have
seen that:

People don't necessarily (or even often) read manuals
"in order".

Even when they do, it can help to put important terms
in a glossary, and add links from the glossary to
topics that also define, or otherwise expand on the
terms.

The Emacs manual has a glossary (`g glossary'), but
the Elisp manual doesn't.  It could have one too.

Links from occurrences to glossary entries (or if
no glossary, to a defining topic) can help.  E.g.,
put a glossary link on the first occurrence of a
term in a given topic, especially if understanding
the term is important to understanding that topic.



^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread

* Re: Reference to ‘alist’ in Emacs Lisp Manual without previous explanation
  2020-10-22 13:05 ` Eli Zaretskii
  2020-10-22 15:31   ` Drew Adams
@ 2020-10-23  7:22   ` Pankaj Jangid
  2020-10-23 10:55     ` Eli Zaretskii
  1 sibling, 1 reply; 7+ messages in thread
From: Pankaj Jangid @ 2020-10-23  7:22 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Eli Zaretskii; +Cc: emacs-devel

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> sequencially. Found reference to ‘alist’ in section 2.4.12 Hash Table
>> Type without any previous explanation.
>> 
>> Either a brief summary should be provided before this, probably near
>> 2.4.6 Cons Cell and List Types or a cross-reference should be added.
>
> If you are reading the manual in order, you should have read 2.4.6.3
> "Association List Type", where "alist" is explained, before you got to
> 2.4.12.  How come you didn't see that?

I missed it completely while reading. Completely my fault. The manual is
absolute truth.



^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread

* Re: Reference to ‘alist’ in Emacs Lisp Manual without previous explanation
  2020-10-23  7:22   ` Pankaj Jangid
@ 2020-10-23 10:55     ` Eli Zaretskii
  2020-10-23 15:10       ` Pankaj Jangid
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 7+ messages in thread
From: Eli Zaretskii @ 2020-10-23 10:55 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Pankaj Jangid; +Cc: emacs-devel

> From: Pankaj Jangid <pankaj@codeisgreat.org>
> Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2020 12:52:48 +0530
> 
> Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> > If you are reading the manual in order, you should have read 2.4.6.3
> > "Association List Type", where "alist" is explained, before you got to
> > 2.4.12.  How come you didn't see that?
> 
> I missed it completely while reading. Completely my fault. The manual is
> absolute truth.

Maybe you could tell how you missed that, and it will help us make
this more prominent?



^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread

* Re: Reference to ‘alist’ in Emacs Lisp Manual without previous explanation
  2020-10-23 10:55     ` Eli Zaretskii
@ 2020-10-23 15:10       ` Pankaj Jangid
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Pankaj Jangid @ 2020-10-23 15:10 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Eli Zaretskii; +Cc: emacs-devel

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> > If you are reading the manual in order, you should have read 2.4.6.3
>> > "Association List Type", where "alist" is explained, before you got to
>> > 2.4.12.  How come you didn't see that?
>> 
>> I missed it completely while reading. Completely my fault. The manual is
>> absolute truth.
>
> Maybe you could tell how you missed that, and it will help us make
> this more prominent?

I tried to replay what I could have done, but could not find a way to
miss the topic. Usually, when I read sequencially, I use SPACE key to go
to next page. This cannot miss the section. And since this section
2.4.6.3 is at the same level as 2.4.6.2 I cannot miss it with ‘n’ as
well.

So, I guess, it just slipped from my mind.



^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2020-10-23 15:10 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 7+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2020-10-22  5:40 Reference to ‘alist’ in Emacs Lisp Manual without previous explanation Pankaj Jangid
2020-10-22  6:42 ` Subject: " Alfred M. Szmidt
2020-10-22 13:05 ` Eli Zaretskii
2020-10-22 15:31   ` Drew Adams
2020-10-23  7:22   ` Pankaj Jangid
2020-10-23 10:55     ` Eli Zaretskii
2020-10-23 15:10       ` Pankaj Jangid

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