Re: My emacs was upgraded and I am a novice again

[Emre Sahin <iesahin@bilkent.edu.tr>]

Just another note about documentation:

Yesterday I convinced myself that removing the "Mail" notification in
the mode line will help for less distraction. I started by checking
the documentation with C-h d, C-h a, C-h v and C-h P with words like
"mail", "display", "notification" etc. My intention was to find some
variable that says Emacs "don't show this mail thing."

I couldn't find anything exactly I wanted, but I thought I found some
way. Changing (poorly documented)
mail-source-report-new-mail-interval and mail-source-idle-time-delay
variables should to the trick. 

But they didn't, and I quit searching for a solution. 

Then, today, when I was changing the face for mode line from
*Customize Group: Mode Line Faces*, I saw something like "Display Time
Mail Face" which is reported to change the display of
"display-time-mail-string" variable. I C-h v'd it, and voila!

Maybe I missed it, maybe Emacs, but somehow I wasn't able to figure
out how to change this by searching documentation. (BTW, I learned
quite a bit by searching, for example I was not aware of a "typing
break mode" for Emacs.) However, I don't think there is a silver
bullet solution, like changing the format or adding a "search all
documentation" function for this problem. I didn't think that mail
notification has something to do with time display and there will
always be cases like this in every software package IMHO. (And Emacs
documentation is the most comprehensive and usable one I've ever
used.)

Best, 

E.

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