Subject: Re: bug#41006: 26.3; regular expressions documentation

From: Richard Stallman <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 08 May 2020 23:53:58 -0400

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  > 1. Some high-level description of regexps - an idea
  >    of what they are and what you can use them for.
  > 2. How to use them to match/search: regexp search.
  > 3. Details of what they are - syntax, etc.

This suggestion is rather vague because it doesn't relate to
the node structure.  The node structure is crucial for a manual in Info.

The overall node for regexps, Regular Expressions, should start with a
brief introduction.  (Every node that has subnodes should start with a
brief introduction.)  It could be as much as 10 or 12 lines.

But the subnode menu should fit on the screen, so more than 10 or 12 lines
is too many.

The node intro normally does NOT start to teach those topics; it only
says what the topics are.  We can't describe very much of regexp
syntax there.

It could say a little bit about some very simple regexps, but no more.

So the first subnodes need to describe how to write a regexp.

I am thinking about the Lisp Manual here.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)