Re: Rename `mini-' options

[Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>]

"Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com> writes:
>> For better or worse, Emacs traditionally distinguishes "the
>> minibuffer" from "the echo area", and resize-mini-windows applies to
>> both.  So a name which captures this subtlety is arguably better than
>> one which lies a bit for the sake of convenient document searching.
>
> And the name `resize-mini-windows' captures this subtlety just how? Is
> it because it cleverly doesn't mention _either_ the minibuffer or the
> echo area?  That's supposed to help somehow?

Sure.  If no existing term captures a concept, then it seems a
reasonable argument that it's better to make a new term than use an
incorrect one.

Of course, it's not always to come up with a good term, but I'm not sure
what other term would be better.  The terms you suggested are pithy, but
seem inaccurate.

Maybe it's better to just declare that "minibuffer-window" always
includes the echo-area, but it's not clear to me whether this would run
into other conflicts or not (e.g. uses of that term that really only
intend to refer to the minibuffer's window).

> The more important point is that this is an _exception_ to the rest of
> the "existing practice". No where else does `mini-' occur.

Eh?  An "exception" to _what_ existing practice?  Are there other
variables/functions which control both echo-area and the minibuffer
display, which use some other term than "mini-window"?

> And it remains unexplained, undocumented.

Perhaps the documentation could use improvement of course.

Indeed, that seems like the most reasonable solution to this issue
(certainly in the short term):  Make sure these variables are mentioned
in every place where they should be; in the end (while apropos is very
convenient, it's not a replacement for the real documentation).

> I apologize for not catching this bug sooner.

It's not a bug, of course.

-Miles

-- 
Any man who is a triangle, has thee right, when in Cartesian Space,
to have angles, which when summed, come to know more, nor no less,
than nine score degrees, should he so wish.  [TEMPLE OV THEE LEMUR]