From: Ilya Zakharevich <nospam-abuse@ilyaz.org>
To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Fixing antediluvianisms in Emacs' UI
Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2010 21:18:19 +0000 (UTC) [thread overview]
Message-ID: <slrni3f4gr.avn.nospam-abuse@powdermilk.math.berkeley.edu> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 87mxu22rbc.fsf@lola.goethe.zz
On 2010-07-08, David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> wrote:
> I think the point was that the manual was not deficient concerning the
> information it provides, but in not making Xah Lee want to read it.
> In a way, it is a losing battle.
Why consider it in military terms? The question at point is that
Emacs' UI is lacking. So just fix it: make it self-documenting, as
any good-UI program should be...
Looks like some vestiges of 80s' mentality still remains in Emacs
design: at the time, a common misconception was that problems with UI
may be "fixed" by updating the manuals. Well, even if one still
believes in this way, it is a dead end: Emacs' manual IS quite good
already, so the improvements achieved in this way would have a trace
value only.
Now, after the flood of "grandmother revolution" [*], we know OTHER
ways. "Self-documenting" means the program guides the user how to use
it. Emacs is now flexible enough so that with most tasks, this may be
easily achieved.
[*] this is how as one of the designers of Plan9 called the major
event of 90s: achievement of understanding of UI design so good
that UI accessible to "grandmothers" may be created. He
attributes this breakthrough to effort of M$; I tend to agree...
> People expect software to just work without reading manuals.
That's right. And when we can EASILY cater to their expectations, we should.
The question at point: ISearch. Lemme sketch one possiblity of adding
self-documentation to ISearch (people with better UI-design experience
must be able to find something yet better):
a) Change the prompt (configurable; verbose by default;
self-documentation should mention how to disable verbosity):
Isearch (F1 for help):
b) bind F1 F1 to "Open manual on basics of Isearch";
c) bind F1 to open a shrink-wrapped buffer with "Quick info" on
ISearch. This info should include the `current state' (case
sensitivity etc) - plus information where this state "comes
from": e.g., whether the particular setting is mode-specific. It
should also state how to toggle "I" in ISearch, toggle case-fold,
switch direction, regexpness, by-word, different ways to quit,
etc.
Should also state how to start Isearch in `a particular state'
(with some toggles pre-loaded).
Does not look difficult to do, does it?
Hope this helps,
Ilya
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2010-07-09 21:18 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 24+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2010-07-07 6:43 Rapidly navigating buffers using search Jonathan Groll
2010-07-07 6:52 ` Aidan Gauland
2010-07-07 6:54 ` Thierry Volpiatto
2010-07-07 7:40 ` Qiang Guo
2010-07-07 8:01 ` Jonathan Groll
2010-07-07 8:45 ` Andrea Crotti
2010-07-07 9:33 ` Deniz Dogan
2010-07-07 10:25 ` Jonathan Groll
[not found] ` <mailman.11.1278498387.2272.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
[not found] ` <9dc07ed9-f6f1-4ac5-949a-5b97368cc32a@n19g2000prf.googlegroups.com>
2010-07-08 2:28 ` despen
[not found] ` <87mxu22rbc.fsf@lola.goethe.zz>
2010-07-08 17:59 ` bolega
2010-07-08 22:11 ` WYSIWYG and usability (was: " Peter Flynn
2010-07-08 20:42 ` despen
2010-07-09 21:18 ` Ilya Zakharevich [this message]
2010-07-10 14:22 ` Fixing antediluvianisms in Emacs' UI Pascal J. Bourguignon
2010-07-09 21:39 ` Rapidly navigating buffers using search Ilya Zakharevich
2010-07-10 18:13 ` Xah Lee
2010-07-10 23:25 ` B. T. Raven
2010-07-11 4:47 ` Xah Lee
2010-07-11 13:31 ` B. T. Raven
2010-07-11 16:13 ` David Kastrup
2010-07-11 21:58 ` B. T. Raven
[not found] ` <873cd6b9-8a85-478f-9943-c3ce09eb62c6@n8g2000prh.googlegroups.com>
2010-07-11 21:50 ` B. T. Raven
2010-07-10 21:01 ` Uday S Reddy
2010-07-07 10:54 ` Aidan Gauland
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