two Info entries from emacs20, 21

two Info entries from emacs20, 21

[Dan Jacobson]

This message consists of a debian problem and an emacs problem.  First
the emacs problem.

lets say one has
* Emacs: (emacs-20/emacs). The extensible self-documenting text editor.
* Emacs: (emacs-21/emacs). The extensible self-documenting text editor.
deep in the info dir.  and say we hit C-h i m em tab
No amout of TAB etc. will reveal that there are actually 2 entries of
the same name.  Even in the completions list we just see one cheery
entry.  Only if we go out of our way to inspect deep in the info dir
page several screens below  do we find that indeed there is a choice
to be made and we dont want the default.

OK, now for the debian problem as seen from one who has installed
emacs21 but not been asked to expunge emacs20.  He says:

Excuse me, I installed Emacs21 but I end up in the emacs 20 manual
even though there is a emacs 21 manual

C-h i C-x d C-g m e m <tab> <return> C-x d

at the first C-x d I see that I am in the 21 dir. at the 2nd I am in
the 20 dir.

Oh great, I see the dir has
* Emacs: (emacs-20/emacs). The extensible self-documenting text editor.
* Emacs: (emacs-21/emacs). The extensible self-documenting text editor.

I.e. no more just hitting "m em TAB" from way at the top.  Oh. user
error.  hmmm, maybe I should just remove all the emacs20 packages and
this will self heal.  I installed emacs21 but didn't disinstall
emacs20 as I don't think i was reminded to as they supposedly don't
interfere...

Geez, the whole info dir is loaded with 20 vs. 21 landmines, I had
better rid emacs20 today...

Anyways, the users old habit of hitting m em from the top won't do
these days... must keep eyes in road...

OK, I did "aptitude remove emacs20", that fixed it.

by the way, gnus installed is 5.8.8 but the manual is for 5.9.0
Hmm, after I deleted emacs20, gnus jumped to 5.9.0: moral of story,
the two packages are interfering.  I's say it's worth a apt-get
conflict registration.

P.S. return address munged temporarily due to fear of spam to my last
remaining unburied POP mailbox.  reply to the groups and i'll see it there.

-- 
http://jidanni.org/ Taiwan(04)25854780

Re: two Info entries from emacs20, 21

[Eli Zaretskii]

On 16 Jun 2002, Dan Jacobson wrote:

> This message consists of a debian problem and an emacs problem.  First
> the emacs problem.
> 
> lets say one has
> * Emacs: (emacs-20/emacs). The extensible self-documenting text editor.
> * Emacs: (emacs-21/emacs). The extensible self-documenting text editor.
> deep in the info dir.  and say we hit C-h i m em tab
> No amout of TAB etc. will reveal that there are actually 2 entries of
> the same name.

That's not an Emacs problem: this DIR entry is simply invalid.  No two 
entries should have the same text before the first colon (in this case, 
they both say "Emacs").

So please file a bug report with Debian, since this DIR file comes from 
the Debian distribution.

(The issue of supporting several versions of the same package so that you 
automatically get the right manual is a complex one, and it has been 
discussed several times in the past.  There are no perfect solutions to 
that, but the one above is certainly not the right one, IMHO.  My 
personal advice is to set the INFOPATH variable according to the version 
of the manual you want to read.)