bug#52880: "(elisp) Menu Keymaps") - recommend easy-menu over creating menu by hand

bug#52880: "(elisp) Menu Keymaps") - recommend easy-menu over creating menu by hand

[Stefan Kangas]

Severity: wishlist

The node (info "(elisp) Menu Keymaps") should recommend easy-menu over
creating a menu by hand.  Instead of "Easy Menu" being the last thing in
that node, it should be the first.

bug#52880: "(elisp) Menu Keymaps") - recommend easy-menu over creating menu by hand

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> writes:

> The node (info "(elisp) Menu Keymaps") should recommend easy-menu over
> creating a menu by hand.  Instead of "Easy Menu" being the last thing in
> that node, it should be the first.

Makes sense to me.

I'm also wondering whether we should come up with a new name for
`easy-menu-define' -- I think it's an unfortunate name that makes it
seem like a hacky "easy" way to define menus, instead of the primary
method, which it is.

But it might not be worth the bother.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#52880: [External] : bug#52880: "(elisp) Menu Keymaps") - recommend easy-menu over creating menu by hand

[Drew Adams]

> The node (info "(elisp) Menu Keymaps") should recommend easy-menu over
> creating a menu by hand.  Instead of "Easy Menu" being the last thing in
> that node, it should be the first.

Why?

I disagree.

It should do as it does now, present defining
menus in general terms first: "How to make a
keymap that defines a menu".  It starts by
telling you that "A keymap acts as a menu if"
it has a prompt string. And in continues by
telling you the easiest way to construct a
keymap with a prompt string.  And so on.

Node Easy Menu tells you that you can _add_ a
menu to a keymap.  It doesn't tell you that a
keymap can _be_ a menu.  Which means that it
doesn't tell you what an Emacs menu is.
(And yet it's a subnode of node Menu Keymaps.)

Node Easy Menu doesn't lead to anything.  It
has no "next" node for a reason.  The other
nodes under Menu Keymaps build on each other.

bug#52880: [External] : bug#52880: "(elisp) Menu Keymaps") - recommend easy-menu over creating menu by hand

[Drew Adams]

> I'm also wondering whether we should come up with a new name for
> `easy-menu-define' -- I think it's an unfortunate name that makes it
> seem like a hacky "easy" way to define menus, instead of the primary
> method, which it is.

That's what it is: a hacky "easy" way to define
(some) menus.  (And the quotes are appropriate.)

Do you pretend that just the node Easy Menu is
sufficient, and just replace all of these nodes?

 Menu Keymaps
 Mouse Menus
 Keyboard Menus
 Menu Example
 Menu Bar
 Tool Bar
 Modifying Menus

I don't think so.  Far from it.

bug#52880: "(elisp) Menu Keymaps") - recommend easy-menu over creating menu by hand

[Stefan Kangas]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> I'm also wondering whether we should come up with a new name for
> `easy-menu-define' -- I think it's an unfortunate name that makes it
> seem like a hacky "easy" way to define menus, instead of the primary
> method, which it is.

Could `defvar-menu' work?  It would go well with `defvar-keymap', if
nothing else.

> But it might not be worth the bother.

We could just make the old name into an alias, without making it
obsolete.

Or make the new name into an alias, which is even less invasive.

bug#52880: "(elisp) Menu Keymaps") - recommend easy-menu over creating menu by hand

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> writes:

> Could `defvar-menu' work?  It would go well with `defvar-keymap', if
> nothing else.

Yes, that'd be a good name, I think.  

>> But it might not be worth the bother.
>
> We could just make the old name into an alias, without making it
> obsolete.
>
> Or make the new name into an alias, which is even less invasive.

If we introduce something like `defvar-menu', then perhaps we should
consider changing the syntax slightly, but I guess it's fine as it is...

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no