Re: Red `*' in *info* menus?

[nick]

J Krugman <jkrugman345@yahbitoo.com> writes:

> In <40B3DA25.80202@yahoo.com> Kevin Rodgers <ihs_4664@yahoo.com> writes:
>
>>J Krugman wrote:
>> > ...  What do the red asterisks mean?
>
>> From the Expert node of the Info manual:
>
>>|    If your display supports multiple fonts, and you are using Emacs'
>>| Info mode to read Info files, the `*' for the fifth menu item stands
>>| out, either in color or in some other attribute, such as underline, and
>>| so is the `*' for the ninth item; this makes it easy to see at a glance
>>| which number to use for an item.
>
> Every multiple of 5 would make sense, but the 5-th and the 9-th???
> That's so *weird* !!!  (Or there's a big-time Beethoven fan behind
> this code.)
>

Not *that* weird: keys '1'..'9' are shortcuts to the corresponding
menu entry.  There are only 9 of them, so it does not make any sense
to go further.  The fifth and the ninth are convenient markers and you
can interpolate for the others. But for longer menus, you have to
do it the long way - no shortcuts.

>> > And, more importantly, how could I have answered this question for
>> > myself using the online info system?  I searched for "[^a-z]red[^a-z]"
>> > the "* Info:  (emacs-21/info)" subtree but nothing came up.
>
>>Here's what I did: `M-x list-faces-display', then scan the *Faces*
>>buffer for Info faces that are red; then click on info-menu-5 to see its
>>doc string:
>
>>| Face for the fifth and nineth `*' in an Info menu.
>

Alternatively, you can position the cursor at the red asterisk and do
M-x list-text-properties-at (or, equivalently, Menu->Edit->Text
Properties->List Properties) which will tell you that the face is info-menu-5.
M-x apropos<RET>info-menu-5<RET> will get you the above information.

-- 
nick  (nicholas dot dokos at hp dot com)