RE: new apropos feature in Emacs-22

[Drew Adams]

Hi Lennart,

    May I suggest a __simple___ solution:

It's a joke, right? ;-)

    - Use keyword matching as default (ie like now really)
    - If something looking like a regexp was entered then enter a simple
    y-or-n-p and ask the user if it is a regexp.

    Hm. That is for interactive use of course. Maybe a parameter too ...

    Well, I do not know if this is the right solution. Whatever we
    decide on
    help functions must not be confusing!

Do you see? Do you see the complexity and confusion that creeps in when two
completely different syntaxes and different use cases are mixed up together
in the same command? We're forced to pile on hack after hack to disambiguate
the two cases.

 "Is this intended as a regexp?" "Do you really want to use a regexp?"
 Plus a parameter for non-interactive... Plus an error message or two...
Plus...

And Luc:

 Add a signal-character at the end, to indicate that it's really a regexp...

This is not the way to go. I have not seen one argument for _not_ using
separate commands (or command families): 1) keyword-search commands, 2)
regexp-search commands. Call #1 "apropos" and #2 "about-regexp" if you like,
but let's not try to mix them in the same command.

Best,

  Drew