From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Alan Mackenzie Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Documentation for "Clone Buffers" (corrected version) Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 10:05:32 +0000 (GMT) Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: References: Reply-To: Alan Mackenzie NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1078843428 28691 80.91.224.253 (9 Mar 2004 14:43:48 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 14:43:48 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Tue Mar 09 15:43:35 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1B0iSE-0004i8-00 for ; Tue, 09 Mar 2004 15:43:34 +0100 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1B0iSE-0002LF-00 for ; Tue, 09 Mar 2004 15:43:34 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1B0iMn-00063a-11 for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Tue, 09 Mar 2004 09:37:57 -0500 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1AzGr4-0000dv-Qp for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 05 Mar 2004 10:03:14 -0500 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1AzGq3-0000Os-Ae for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 05 Mar 2004 10:02:43 -0500 Original-Received: from [193.149.49.134] (helo=acm.acm) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1AzGpw-0000Kj-PY for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 05 Mar 2004 10:02:05 -0500 Original-Received: from localhost (root@localhost) by acm.acm (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id KAA00245 for ; Fri, 5 Mar 2004 10:05:33 GMT X-Sender: root@acm.acm Original-To: emacs-devel@gnu.org In-Reply-To: X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2 Precedence: list List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:20276 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:20276 [Re: My proposed patch to the Emacs manual, documenting the command `clone-buffer'.] On Sat, 28 Feb 2004, Richard Stallman wrote: [Alan Mackenzie:] > I disagree. I find clone-buffer exceptionally useful, as it is the > only way I know of having two *info* buffers displaying different > info files at the same time. >The recommended method is to create one, do M-x rename-uniquely, then >switch to some other buffer and do M-x info again. This works for all >sorts of special facilities. Ah, right! :-) That's anything but user-friendly, though. It's also difficult to work out from the documentation. I couldn't find any hint of this procedure in the Info info pages, which is the first place I looked, a year or three ago. Maybe having two or more *info* buffers at a time is need peculiar to me, but I would've thought it a fairly common requirement. At the very least, if people are going to be writing fine manuals, they'll probably be wanting texinfo.info open in front of them. (I still need to refer to this continually, even after having written a moderate amount of documentation.) They'll also be wanting to have open the current version of the info file whose source they're modifying. At least, I do. Making it awkward having two *info*s (or at least awkward discovering how to) is surely a discouragement from writing documentation. I think a(n easy) method of opening a second *info* buffer is a Good Thing. Perhaps M-n `clone-buffer' isn't the most elegant command around, but it's got to be better than M-x rename-uniquely etc., from a user's point of view. Incidentally, there isn't an entry in the Emacs manual's command index for `rename-uniquely'. Is this deliberate or is it a bug? I'm rather surprised at the preference for leaving an Emacs command like `clone-buffers' _undocumented_. Does this perhaps signal an intention to remove this command from Emacs? If so, why? I think the documentation in this area could do with improvement, and I'm prepared to do more work on it myself, given pointers to the direction this should take. -- Alan Mackenzie (Munich, Germany)