From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Brady Montz Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: The minibuffer vs. Dialog Boxes (Re: Making XEmacs be more up-to-date) Date: 23 Apr 2002 12:56:03 -0700 Sender: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org Message-ID: References: <87vgal3w79.fsf@tleepslib.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <87vgak30cw.fsf@tleepslib.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <7263-Mon22Apr2002224014+0300-eliz@is.elta.co.il> <87bscbysbm.fsf@tleepslib.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <878z7euysa.fsf@tleepslib.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp> <7263-Tue23Apr2002222135+0300-eliz@is.elta.co.il> NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1019591870 19683 127.0.0.1 (23 Apr 2002 19:57:50 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 19:57:50 +0000 (UTC) Cc: xemacs-design@xemacs.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1 (Debian)) id 1706QA-00057M-00 for ; Tue, 23 Apr 2002 21:57:50 +0200 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([199.232.76.164]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 1706RU-0004lD-00 for ; Tue, 23 Apr 2002 21:59:12 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 3.34 #1 (Debian)) id 1706Q0-0007qC-00; Tue, 23 Apr 2002 15:57:40 -0400 Original-Received: from c64-255-216-95.sea1.cablespeed.com ([64.255.216.95] helo=sandman.balestra.org) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 3.34 #1 (Debian)) id 1706Oa-0007fr-00 for ; Tue, 23 Apr 2002 15:56:12 -0400 Original-Received: (from bradym@localhost) by sandman.balestra.org (8.10.2/8.10.2) id g3NJu3Z07208; Tue, 23 Apr 2002 12:56:03 -0700 (PDT) X-Authentication-Warning: sandman.balestra.org: bradym set sender to bradym@balestra.org using -f Original-To: Eli Zaretskii In-Reply-To: <7263-Tue23Apr2002222135+0300-eliz@is.elta.co.il> Original-Lines: 46 User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) XEmacs/21.5 (bamboo) Errors-To: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.9 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:3129 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:3129 "Eli Zaretskii" writes: > > From: Brady Montz > > Date: 23 Apr 2002 11:20:43 -0700 > > > > > > So, how about a doc-ring between: > > > > 1. the info node > > 2. the source > > 3. an example/howto > > 4. the docstring > > 5. the key binding > > 6. the mode or greater package a command is in > > 7. related commands/variables (by name, location, explicitly listed by > > a doc writer, whatever). > > 8. the customize page > > 9. home pages of packages (like gnus's home page). > > Sounds good, but how does a user get into the ring in the first place? Lessee, we currently have: 1. the help menu 2. the items on the splash page those seem a good start. In addition, a general help dialog box might be nice. I imagine something similar to the searching dialog boxes out there, a text field and maybe some check boxes for what you want to find or where you want to search. Something extra that would be sweet, but I don't know how feasible it is, is a context-sensitive way of proposing the most likely help they'd want. Ideas: 1. a button on the toolbar and/or in the menu to describe the current modes. 2. "what's this?" tooltips or buttons. 3. a minor mode like eldoc that makes the symbols in your elisp files clickable, just like we have for info and man pages. Click on a symbol to find out more. "What's this?" might be particularly useful for the modeline. -- Brady Montz bradym@balestra.org