Re: My emacs was upgraded and I am a novice again

[Tim X]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> writes:

>> From: Tom Tromey <tromey@redhat.com>
>> Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 10:14:04 -0600
>> 
>> The fundamental discoverability problem with Emacs isn't that the
>> documentation is missing -- it never is.  The problem is, if you want
>> to find something by keyword, first you must guess the keyword that
>> the original author used.
>> 
>> I don't know a good way to solve this problem.
>
> Well, we could add a feature whereby documentation search commands
> will suggest to look for alternative keywords.  This feature could use
> a database of synonyms for computer-related terminology, as well as
> popular alternatives for certain Emacs parlance (such as "yank" etc.).
>
> This way, if you didn't find what you wanted, you'd be presented with
> a list of additional words or phrases to search for.
>

I think this is a good idea. What strikes me about all of this is that most
of the terminology people find difficult is actually due to the evolving
nature of language. For example, cut and paste are the common terms and
many find 'yank' odd. However, back when I started, 'yank' was more common.

Tim


-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au