From: Drew Adams <drew.adams@oracle.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>, Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se>
Cc: "55408@debbugs.gnu.org" <55408@debbugs.gnu.org>
Subject: bug#55408: Explain the word "interactively" in the Emacs Manual
Date: Sun, 15 May 2022 15:12:38 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <SJ0PR10MB5488CBFC59E98071A8975DB8F3CC9@SJ0PR10MB5488.namprd10.prod.outlook.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <83k0anj5ry.fsf@gnu.org>
> We use this style in many doc strings. I'd consider it a standard
> Emacs language of describing what happens in interactive invocations,
> and presume that any Emacs user knows only too well what it means.
> If we change our style, we'd have to change it in many places,
> including the manual.
I happen to agree with that, generally. It's part
of what I meant by:
There's maybe no magic bullet here: something short
and sweet that can be repeated in most doc strings,
but that also gets across everything about this:
...
> > > The very first line presented in the *Help* buffer says:
> > > package-update-all is an interactive compiled Lisp function in
> > > ‘package.el’. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >
> > I think it would probably be more helpful if that line said "a
> > command" instead of "an interactive compiled Lisp function".
>
> It is both a command and a function. Every command can be also
> invoked non-interactively. That is what that sentence says, and has
> been saying since day one.
Agreed. The "problem" is that the meaning might
not be clear to some (many?) users consulting a
doc string.
Whether it's worth trying to solve that problem,
with the attendant bother you mention (changing
lots of doc strings), and with the difficulty of
coming up with a short-and-sweet-and-clear fix,
which I mention, is another question.
IMO, things are pretty good already. But yeah,
it's likely a bit of a problem, esp. for newbies.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2022-05-15 15:12 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 8+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2022-05-14 8:16 bug#55408: Explain the word "interactively" in the Emacs Manual Stefan Kangas
2022-05-14 8:46 ` Eli Zaretskii
2022-05-15 12:20 ` Stefan Kangas
2022-05-15 13:15 ` Eli Zaretskii
2022-05-15 15:12 ` Drew Adams [this message]
2022-05-15 13:34 ` Lars Ingebrigtsen
2022-05-15 15:00 ` Stefan Kangas
2022-05-15 15:07 ` Drew Adams
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