Re: Why emacs have not native language menu

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Jean-Christophe Helary <fusion@mx6.tiki.ne.jp>
> Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2007 20:52:50 +0900
> 
> 
> On 27 juil. 07, at 19:47, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> 
> >> From: Jean-Christophe Helary <fusion@mx6.tiki.ne.jp>
> >> Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2007 09:23:45 +0900
> >>
> >> I sincerely think the emacs documentation (manual, elisp reference,
> >> elist introduction) is verbose. I think the structure is not explicit
> >> enough. I think they don't provide an easy access to information.
> >
> > You will have to back this up with explicit examples (more than one
> > for each category, preferably), to convince the maintainers to treat
> > these assertions seriously.  (The emacs-devel list is the right place
> > to post the examples and for any serious discussion of problems with
> > the Emacs documentation.)
> 
> I did not intend to discuss the issues because I have no solution to  
> propose, but you asked me what I thought about the manuals and I  
> replied.

I'm asking to give the details.  What you wrote cannot be used to
improve the documentation because it does not say anything specific,
just slogans.

> > As for easy access to information (assuming I understood what you
> > mean), the index search command (`i' in Info mode) normally gets me to
> > the right place very quickly and efficiently.
> 
> I work with OSX and I have yet to find how to set the dictionary for  
> the spell-buffer function. The code (not the manual) says that it is  
> an interface to the UNIX spell program. "man spell" on OSX does not  
> give anything, on the web I find that spell is mapped to ispell, but  
> for some reason the dictionary spell uses in emacs is different from  
> the dictionary set for ispell... The manual itself does not mention  
> spell-buffer at all.

Why are you trying to use spell-buffer, when the current spelling
interface is ispell-buffer and flyspell-mode?  Both of them use aspell
or ispell, which are much more modern spellers than the ancient spell.

I think this is your problem.

In any case, this does not seem to be an Emacs documentation problem,
since the manuals you mention are not Emacs manuals.  If you type
"i spelling RET" in the Emacs manual inside the Emacs Info mode, you
will land in the section that describes the commands which should
"just work".

> > I think the real problem is that no one stepped forward and
> > volunteered.  It's true that the core maintainers generally have a
> > good command of English, and have too much on their plate to make this
> > their first priority, but that would not prevent them from welcoming
> > any work on localization--witness the proliferation of translations of
> > the tutorial and reference cards between Emacs 21.x and 22.1.
> 
> Considering that the last serious exchange on localization dates back  
> from 2001 and that a number of the participants now are either of the  
> "we don't need localization/localization is dangerous" type or of the  
> "we don't need elisp for that let's use gettext" type I don't really  
> wonder why things have not progressed in 6 years.

Like I said: no one stepped forward.  We are still waiting.