Subject: bug#12492: Acknowledgement (24.2.50; Open vc-dir buffer easier and faster)

From: Dmitry Gutov <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 8 Mar 2020 02:49:24 +0200

On 07.03.2020 9:37, Eli Zaretskii wrote:

>> Something like:
>>
>> A project is set of files. Which we usually define through a list of
>> directories where the files reside, and a list of ignore rules that
>> exclude some files within said directories from being considered a part
>> of the project.
> 
> This is too abstract: it doesn't tell the reader how to "create a
> project".  Without knowing that, all the rest of the information about
> the commands is mostly useless, because the commands cannot be used in
> practice.

We don't provide a command to create a project, and we probably won't in 
the future either.

I disagree about useless, since most users deal with existing projects 
99% of the time. But I can see how a manual would seem incomplete 
without such information. It doesn't have to be contained in the 
definition of "what is a project", however.

> We are talking about the Emacs User manual.  The project API is
> extensible on the Lisp programmer level, not on the user level.  So
> the user-level information should describe what is available to users;
> too much abstractions is inappropriate.

Still, I'd prefer if it did that without conflating the terms.

>>> I see nothing wrong with having this in the VC chapter for now; we can
>>> always move it out later, when there are other back-ends.  The
>>> placement of sections in chapters of the manual is neither sacred nor
>>> final.
>>
>> As long as it doesn't say that a project is a VC repository.
> 
> But with the VC back-end, it really is, isn't it?

The relation is reverse (all repositories are projects, but not all 
projects are repositories), but yes.

> Then why not say
> that the type of project supported by Emacs OOTB is a VCS repository?

Sure, we can say that. Maybe also add an adjective like "main" (the main 
type of project ...), since EDE is also a part of Emacs.