bug#56251: Make obsoletion info more prominent in *Help* buffer

bug#56251: Make obsoletion info more prominent in *Help* buffer

[Stefan Kangas]

Severity: wishlist

We have moved all the extra information in the *Help* buffer to the end.
For example, see `org-agenda-ignore-drawer-properties':

  This variable is an alias for ‘org-agenda-ignore-properties’.
  This variable is obsolete since 9.0;
  use ‘org-agenda-ignore-properties’ instead.
  You can customize this variable.

This is very welcome.  However, I find that the obsoletion warning is
easy to miss.  Presumably, this is very important information before
even considering using the variable.  We want to strongly discourage
that, right?

So how about making that particular part more prominent, for example by
moving it back up to the top again, or by giving it some color?

bug#56251: Make obsoletion info more prominent in *Help* buffer

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> writes:

> However, I find that the obsoletion warning is
> easy to miss.  Presumably, this is very important information before
> even considering using the variable.  We want to strongly discourage
> that, right?
>
> So how about making that particular part more prominent, for example by
> moving it back up to the top again, or by giving it some color?

I think moving it back to the top makes sense -- it's very important
information.

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

bug#56251: Make obsoletion info more prominent in *Help* buffer

[Drew Adams]

> > However, I find that the obsoletion warning is
> > easy to miss.  Presumably, this is very important information before
> > even considering using the variable.  We want to strongly discourage
> > that, right?
> >
> > So how about making that particular part more prominent, for example
> > by moving it back up to the top again, or by giving it some color?
> 
> I think moving it back to the top makes sense -- it's very important
> information.

No, it's not more important than the other
meta-information that you've moved to the end.
It's a footnote - should be, anyway.

bug#56251: Make obsoletion info more prominent in *Help* buffer

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> I think moving it back to the top makes sense -- it's very important
> information.

I've now done so in Emacs 29.

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

bug#56251: Make obsoletion info more prominent in *Help* buffer

[Rudolf Adamkovič via Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors]

Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> writes:

> However, I find that the obsoletion warning is easy to miss.

+1 As a user, I missed it multiple times.  I would expect deprecation
warnings to show first.  Otherwise, the user might spend their time
learning about something just to discover, at the very end, that they
should learn about and use something else.  That does not make much
sense.

P.S. The *Help* buffer could use more typography and color affordances.
In this case, I would expect strike-through on the symbol name, or the
word "deprecated" displayed in red, or something else.

R+
-- 
"Be especially critical of any statement following the word
'obviously.'"
-- Anna Pell Wheeler, 1883-1966

Rudolf Adamkovič <salutis@me.com> [he/him]
Studenohorská 25
84103 Bratislava
Slovakia

bug#56251: Make obsoletion info more prominent in *Help* buffer

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > +1 As a user, I missed it multiple times.  I would expect deprecation
  > warnings to show first.

I think that makes sense.

Could we also put them in a different color, for emphasis?

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)