Re: Emacs Mini Manual (PART 3) - CUSTOMIZING AND EXTENDING EMACS

[Robert Thorpe <rt@robertthorpeconsulting.com>]

Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:

> solidius4747@gmail.com writes:
>
...
>
> I only have a very old version of the manual - Emacs
> 18, I think - but I read that twice. It wasn't
> difficult to understand but I noticed there were gaps
> in it when I compared how I used Emacs. There was no
> mention of Gnus and I don't remember if RMAIL was
> mentioned, for example, but there were material on the
> message-mode, perhaps to be used between Unix boxes on
> an intranet (?) - of course, if those things weren't
> around then, they couldn't have been included - but as
> for being a reference, I don't remember it being too
> difficult to digest, on the contrary I remember it
> being pleasant to read (big sheets, wide margins, clear
> and normal language, and so on).

I recommend using a new version of the Emacs manual set.  The last
version of Emacs 18 was released more than 21 years ago.  The current
manual describes RMAIL in detail.  A separate manual describes GNUS,
that manual is part of the set.  "Message-mode" is the mode for
composing email and newsgroup posts that comes with GNUS.  It's used
by GNUS, RMAIL and several other programs.  It's frequently used, I'm
using it now, that's why it's included in the manual set.  Of-course
reading an old manual is still useful, many things haven't changed.

Most of the manuals provide basic help on using a feature *and* more
advanced info.  So, the manuals can be read as a reference, or read
selectively.  I'm in the process of re-reading the Emacs manual myself.
I've found quite a lot of useful stuff.

This isn't a criticism of solidius4747's tutorial.  I haven't had a
chance to read it yet, so I can't comment.  I agree that there are
many things that should be treated in the manual that aren't there.

BR,
Rob