From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Tassilo Horn Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: usability problem of emacs describe-mode Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:49:57 +0100 Organization: University Koblenz-Landau Campus Koblenz Message-ID: <87mycdorve.fsf@thinkpad.tsdh.de> References: <76fcf833-ad89-44f2-b227-e18295317ca2@p13g2000yqc.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1235421668 25065 80.91.229.12 (23 Feb 2009 20:41:08 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:41:08 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Feb 23 21:42:22 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1Lbhcv-00067d-Pn for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:42:10 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:42296 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Lbhbb-0001qL-BT for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:40:47 -0500 Original-Path: news.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!news-2.dfn.de!news.uni-stuttgart.de!news.belwue.de!news.uni-kl.de!cache.uni-koblenz.de!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help,comp.emacs Original-Followup-To: comp.emacs Original-Lines: 44 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: p54af3681.dip0.t-ipconnect.de Original-X-Trace: cache.uni-koblenz.de 1235418605 6205 84.175.54.129 (23 Feb 2009 19:50:05 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: news@cache.uni-koblenz.de Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:50:05 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.0.90 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:KutVmb181EXE5Q8gSLSLWs1zsRo= Original-Xref: news.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:166994 comp.emacs:97846 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:62300 Archived-At: Xah Lee writes: > emacs's describe-mode (Ctrl+h m) is really unusable. [...] > Why the fuck do i care to be splashed with these info? Having all minor mode descriptions on one page does make sense, because then you can use isearch. Imagine you write "xy SPC" and suddenly it expanded to "foobar". `C-h m C-s expand' will point you to the culprit's description (abbrev-mode). > Suggestion: > > • describe-mode should just show the inline doc for the major mode. I'd object with the reason above. > • Add a link to the bottom to go to the full doc of the mode, if it > exists. (the link may be to info doc, or to a url online of the mode's > doc website) Yep, an info link would be nice. One could enforce that each command's description contains a link to the relevant info pages, but that would create a thight coupling between the code and the docs which requires additional maintenance. > • get rid of convention of using ^L for page break marker. I don't have a opinion on that, but ^L doesn't occur in normal text, so it makes parsing the *Help* buffer a bit easier. > In addition, many of the convention adds up the pain in reading the > doc. e.g. C t, C-u C-u, RET, , etc. The C something really > should be Ctrl+c, RET should be Return or Enter, should be > Right Button, etc. I don't think that `Ctrl+c Alt+m' is more readable than `C-c M-m'. And may be the right mouse button on your system, but on mine it's . And with some gaming mouse it may be . Bye, Tassilo