Subject: RE: please review bug #13141

From: "Drew Adams" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2013 20:24:29 -0800

> http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs-en/emacsbug%2b.el
>
> And I agree with Dmitry's additional suggestion that we could 
> provide a command or commands to insert individual information
> items, e.g., the same items a user can choose for the default
> behavior using the option:
> 
> * version info
> * important settings list
> * major mode
> * minor modes
> * recent input
> * recent messages
> * load-path shadows
> * features

I've done that now in the standalone version at the URL above.  The help buffer
describes the available keys (commands) for inserting info.  All such keys are
on prefix C-o.

Only those keys corresponding to info that is not automatically inserted,
according to the option value, are bound to keys.  And the help lists only those
that are currently bound.

E.g., if a user customizes the option to include no info by default, then a
command is bound for each info type, and all of those keys are listed in the
help, as shown in the attached screenshot.  When no info is inserted by default,
there is also a command/key to insert everything.

At the other extreme, by default everything is inserted automatically, so no
insertion commands are bound to keys and nothing is said in the help about the
commands.  The help is the same as in vanilla Emacs today, in that case, except
that it mentions the option that you can customize, with a link for that.

In between these extremes, the help shows keys for any info that did not get
inserted automatically.  It is very easy to add any type of info.

It's hard for me to believe that some people are still suggesting we require
users to answer a guantlet of questions about what info they want to provide.
That is so barbaric it makes my head spin.

This is the right approach, IMO:

Pick a good set of default info types to insert automatically (e.g., all of
them, today).  Then tell users, in the displayed help, that they can customize
an option to not include, by default, any of the info types they want.  If they
have customized that option to not include some types of info, then mention, in
the help, the keys that insert that missing info.

What could be simpler and more flexible?