Re: Emacs Manual topics to remove?

["Miles Bader" <miles@gnu.org>]

On 3/13/06, Chong Yidong <cyd@stupidchicken.com> wrote:
> > I think it could cause resentment to suggest removing chapters that others
> > have contributed.  I wonder if it's possible to count page hits on the online
> > version at www.gnu.org and generally remove those chapters that receive the
> > least hits?
>
> Well, they are only being moved to emacs-xtras, not deleted.

In any case, it seems silly to avoid doing necessary pruning because
of some vague fear of offending somebody.  Pretty much _everything_ in
Emacs is a contribution, so one simply can't think this way.

Not that it's an easy decision -- a great deal of what exists in emacs
is "marginal" in some sense (is only used by a relatively small
percentage of users).

It does seem that it would be courteous to bring the authors of the
text into the discussion; maybe they could suggest alternatives such
as abridgement?

Anyway, some possibilities for deletion that come to mind:

   + Nroff mode [obscure language these days, and not very useful content]

   + Asm Mode [fairly useless -- doesn't say much you wouldn't get
from just using the mode]

   + Table mode; I'm not sure about this one -- it could be very
popular, I suppose, but it _is_ quite large.  Maybe there could be a
shortened version in the printed manual (similar to the way that Gnus
has a short intro in the Emacs, manual, which links to the huge
standalone Gnus manual)?

Personally I think "Nroff Mode" and "Asm Mode" could just be deleted
entirely, there seems not much point to them, even in emacs-xtra.

-Miles
--
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.