Subject: [PATCH] Simplify introduction of use-package manual
From: Kévin Le Gouguec <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 27 Dec 2022 22:43:49 +0100
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

Tags: patch

Hello Emacs,

A couple of things intrigue me in the current introduction of the
use-package manual:

> This chapter provides instructions and examples for quickly getting
> started with use-package.  The first thing you need to do is make sure
> that ‘use-package’ itself is loaded.  To do that, put this at the top of
> your init file:
> 
>      (require 'use-package)
> 
>    The above makes the ‘use-macro’ available for us in the rest of your
> init file.  In this manual, we say that each call to ‘use-macro’ is a
> “declaration”, to highlight the declarative nature of its syntax.
— (info "(use-package) Getting Started")

(a) I don't think use-package defines anything called "use-macro";
guessing this was supposed to read "‘use-package’ macro" instead?  I
guess the former could be a shorthand for the latter, but it's not used
anywhere else in the manual.

(b) AFAICT use-package is autoloaded, so there should be no need for the
user to (require 'use-package)?

I've made a patch against emacs-29 to simplify this part of the manual
according to these hypotheses.  I hope they are correct; apologies for
the noise if not.

(And even if the hypotheses are correct, I hope the patch is OK: the
second sentence in this tentative new paragraph feels a bit disconnected
from the first to me.  Still, I figured it was worth submitting anyway
just to validate those hypotheses before racking more of my brain on
optimal wording)

Thanks.

In GNU Emacs 30.0.50 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version
 3.24.24, cairo version 1.16.0) of 2022-12-26 built on hirondell
Repository revision: 2ffe1494e16381cfc7fec95a6a0879f268df3e95
Repository branch: master
Windowing system distributor 'The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.12011000
System Description: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)

Configured using:
 'configure --cache-file=/home/peniblec/.cache/emacs/config,src,emacs
 --with-cairo --with-gconf --with-sqlite3 --with-xinput2'

From 15b50490cb87b19888dcb95b84a78d05686e7b89 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?K=C3=A9vin=20Le=20Gouguec?= <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 27 Dec 2022 15:40:43 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Simplify introduction of use-package manual

* doc/misc/use-package.texi (Getting Started): Do not advise requiring
the package, since the macro is autoloaded; also correct the macro's
name.
---
 doc/misc/use-package.texi | 16 +++-------------
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/misc/use-package.texi b/doc/misc/use-package.texi
index c587d23d74b..1d0e38a1eca 100644
--- a/doc/misc/use-package.texi
+++ b/doc/misc/use-package.texi
@@ -132,19 +132,9 @@ Getting Started
 @cindex quick-start instructions
 
 This chapter provides instructions and examples for quickly getting
-started with use-package.  The first thing you need to do is make sure
-that @file{use-package} itself is loaded.  To do that, put this at the
-top of your init file:
-
-@lisp
-(require 'use-package)
-@end lisp
-
-@cindex declaration
-The above makes the @code{use-macro} available for us in the rest of
-your init file.  In this manual, we say that each call to
-@code{use-macro} is a @dfn{declaration}, to highlight the declarative
-nature of its syntax.
+started with use-package.  In this manual, we say that each call to
+the @code{use-package} macro in your init file is a @dfn{declaration},
+to highlight the declarative nature of its syntax.
 
 To unconditionally load a package named @samp{foo}, add the following
 declaration to your init file:
-- 
2.30.2