From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Alan Mackenzie Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: apropos apropos [was: how do i find out the platform emacs runs on?] Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2003 10:50:33 +0000 Organization: muc.de e.V. -- private internet access Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Message-ID: References: <4kjspb.57.ln@acm.acm> NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1070108233 18347 80.91.224.253 (29 Nov 2003 12:17:13 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2003 12:17:13 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Nov 29 13:17:10 2003 Return-path: Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1AQ42A-000739-00 for ; Sat, 29 Nov 2003 13:17:10 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1AQ4y9-0005pW-Gz for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 29 Nov 2003 08:17:05 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!npeer.de.kpn-eurorings.net!newsfeed.stueberl.de!news.space.net!news.muc.de!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 46 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: acm.muc.de Original-X-Trace: marvin.muc.de 1070106688 87543 193.149.49.134 (29 Nov 2003 11:51:28 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: news-admin@muc.de Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: 29 Nov 2003 11:51:28 GMT User-Agent: tin/1.4.5-20010409 ("One More Nightmare") (UNIX) (Linux/2.0.35 (i686)) Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:118771 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:14712 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:14712 Eli Zaretskii wrote on 24 Nov 2003 14:46:26 +0200: >> From: Alan Mackenzie >> Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help >> Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2003 09:39:16 +0000 >> As a matter of interest, how should I have discovered the existence of >> these commands? > Help->Search Documentation from the menubar could be one way to find > out. OK. I don't actually have a menubar (on a Linux console), but I suppose that's my problem these days. :-) > However, I know about these commands for such a long time that I cannot > even remember how I learned about their existence. Probably, from NEWS > or something. >> Could it be that the "help" system could do with enhancement? > It is IMHO a trivium that any help system of any software could do with > enhancement ;-) The question is: how? Please feel free to suggest > improvements if you have specific ideas. I've tried to reconstruct how I discovered the help system when I was new to Emacs. I think that, having discovered C-h ?, I implicitly (but mistakenly) understood that _ALL_ the help commands were listed by C-h ?. Thus when I might have wanted `apropos-variable', I would have scanned through C-h ?, failed to see it, then assumed it didn't exist. Maybe inserting something like "Full details of these commands, and further advanced help commands can be found in the Emacs manual." at the bottom of the C-h ? page would help here. Incidentally, on the manual page "Help", the first item in the menu is: * Help Summary:: Brief list of all Help commands. However, on the "Help Summary" page, there is no mention of M-x apropos-variable and friends. -- Alan Mackenzie (Munich, Germany) Email: aacm@muuc.dee; to decode, wherever there is a repeated letter (like "aa"), remove half of them (leaving, say, "a").