bug#67620: Better indent-rigidly prompt

bug#67620: Better indent-rigidly prompt

[Dan Jacobson]

What does "Indent region with TAB" mean?
To the layman it means put tabs at the beginning of each line.

But here it means something different:
Indent region with TAB, <left>, <right>, S-<left>, S-<right>

So maybe indent-rigidly should prompt with
Indent region with <left>, <right>, S-<left>, S-<right>, or TAB

In fact that is their order in the docstring!

Else one stares at the prompt for 30 seconds tying to figure out what
it is trying to say.

Or maybe say
Type TAB, <left>, <right>, S-<left>, S-<right>, to indent region
or
Type <left>, <right>, S-<left>, S-<right>, or TAB to indent region

Also it seems C-x C-i is easier to type than C-x TAB. So maybe mention
that one can type either. (Yes, same bytes sent, at least on a VT100.)

bug#67620: Better indent-rigidly prompt

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org>
> Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2023 16:34:40 +0800
> 
> What does "Indent region with TAB" mean?
> To the layman it means put tabs at the beginning of each line.

Where did you see that text?  In Emacs 29.1 the prompt says this
instead:

  Indent region with TAB, <left>, <right>, S-<left>, S-<right>

> Or maybe say
> Type TAB, <left>, <right>, S-<left>, S-<right>, to indent region
> or
> Type <left>, <right>, S-<left>, S-<right>, or TAB to indent region

This is indeed better; changed.

> Also it seems C-x C-i is easier to type than C-x TAB. So maybe mention
> that one can type either.

Mention where?

bug#67620: Better indent-rigidly prompt

[Dan Jacobson]

Thanks for fixing it. I was talking about when you're reading the 
sentence and you get halfway through and then you start to think.

As far as documenting C-i,. Perhaps put in the docstring.

bug#67620: Better indent-rigidly prompt

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2023 18:55:45 +0800
> From: Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org>
> Cc: 67620@debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> Thanks for fixing it. I was talking about when you're reading the 
> sentence and you get halfway through and then you start to think.
> 
> As far as documenting C-i,. Perhaps put in the docstring.

We don't document the bindings in doc strings, because users can
rebind commands, and then the doc string will be incorrect.

There are also technical problems with referring to a single binding
when a command has several ones.

So I think this aspect will remain the user's responsibility (the
Emacs manual explains that TAB and C-i are the same).