Subject: Re: bug#56870: [PATCH] Re: bug#56870: company-dabbrev variable documentation

From: YE <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 05 Aug 2022 12:10:33 +0300

Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]> writes:

>> My take on the 'Init File' docs improvement is attached.
>
> Thanks.  However, this basically adds to the Emacs manual stuff whose
> place is in the ELisp manual.

This patch clarifies _existing_ node of the Emacs manual:
1. Adds indexes.
2. Adds links to the ELisp manual for further reading.
3. Clarifies how to use _wide-spread_ symbols (extensively used by newbies).

Which part _exactly_ you don't find suitable for the Emacs manual?

Don't Symbols deserve the same attention as Numbers, Strings,
Characters described extensively in `(emacs) Init Syntax'?

Maybe, according to your point of view, this node should be removed from
the Emacs manual altogether, (linking to the ELisp manual)?

In my fresh memory, this part of the manual was one of the least helpful
and the most confusing. So my (vanishing) hope was to contribute a
little bit of improvement to it to help fellow beginner users, when one
of the issues with it was articulated.

Or should I submit a new bug report with the vague: `(emacs) Init File'
is confusing and isn't instructive enough for the newbies?

Many (if not most) of the beginners start tweaking Emacs via the init
file, not Customize interface. So well-written beginner instructions on
how to use init file is a _need_, not a whim.

> So I'm not sure we should start on this
> slippery slope.

We start on the slippery slope when the reported issues aren't resolved.

> Users who need to write complex Lisp in their init
> files need to read the ELisp manual anyway.

What part of the patch touches the "complex Lisp"?