Re: [External] : Re: finding stuff

[Emanuel Berg]

Drew Adams wrote:

>> But can't you do the same discovery travel with shortcuts,
>> with `C-h m' or `describe-mode'?
>
> No, you can't. (Whatever's not the same is different - has
> relative (dis)advantages.)
>
> 1. `describe-mode' is limited. It's limited to whatever
> someone wrote for it for the given mode.
>
> 2. Menu items generally describe/name commands a bit
> differently from their command names. I cited the example
> for the case in question (`C-h d').
>
> And menus group related commands, in a hierachy. The names
> of the ancestors and siblings in the hierarchy also help
> with discovery.
>
> 3. Wrt matching against menu names (items and their ancestor
> menus): If you use something like La Carte together with
> completion that allows substring or regexp matching, and
> progressive completion, then you can directly match
> component bits of a menu item looked at as an absolute name,
> i.e., including its entire path from the root.
>
> That lets you discover it based on any/all of its ancestors,
> as well as the item name, AND go to it directly, in one go.
>
> 4. All of these are helpful, including for discovery, and
> each offers a difference access approach or entry point:
>
> * key sequence (e.g. mnemonic, similar to keys
>   for related behavior)
> * command name (e.g. name components that say
>   different things about what it means/does
> * menu item name
> * full menu item name, i.e., including its "path"

Regardless of whatever side-effects menus may have in this or
any other direction, their purpose is for the user to invoke
commands, and this happens in a certain way.

The problem remains that if one doesn't like that certain way,
the discoverability side-effect won't help. One will still not
like it and probably not use it.

Instead, if we were to go discover stuff, we should have
a dedicated `discovery-mode' with that and only that purpose,
so that everyone, menu lovers and haters alike (because that
has nothing to do with it), so that everyone can discover
Emacs and then invoke the newfound commands in... you guessed
it... any way they like!

menus vs shortcuts - fine discussion

menus vs shortcuts with respect to "discoverability" - DNC

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