Re: tags for functions

[Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>]

On Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:43:33 -0500 Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote: 

SM> Stefan "who still doesn't know what data we're talking about"
>> I'm interested in "@keyword" substrings of the docstring that indicate
>> the keywords for a particular function.  The goals are to:
>> - list all keywords
>> - list all keywords for a function
>> - list all functions for a keyword

SM> Not know what that data would be used for, it's hard to give you
SM> good feedback.

The goal is to do the three operations above as an API.  Then Emacs will
use it, for example, to show related functions in C-h f

The package can also provide browsing by keyword, as finder.el does.

>> Juri's solution is slow, as Lennart noted, due to the `documentation'
>> issue you mentioned.  I said I think a defun-after-hook would be the
>> best solution.  Maybe it should be combined with a etc/DOC scan to find
>> all the existing keywords quickly.

SM> In any case, we don't want to collect/store this info all the time: we
SM> only want to pay for it when this data is actually used.

Agreed.  So here's what I am proposing:

A package which, when installed, will:

1) modify defun-after-hook so new defun calls will be noted, or install
advice on defun (I'd rather do the former)

2) scan existing docstrings over mapatoms using `documentation' (it's
slow now apparently, so it will need to be optimized for a batch scan)

3) provide functionality as listed above under "goals"

I only need defun-after-hook to be approved, I can do the rest.  Do you
agree it's useful or would you rather not provide such a hook?

Thanks
Ted