GNU bug report logs - #67620
Better indent-rigidly prompt

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From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: tracker <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#67620: closed (Better indent-rigidly prompt)
Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2023 13:09:02 +0000

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Your message dated Tue, 05 Dec 2023 15:08:22 +0200
with message-id <831qc06bll.fsf <at> gnu.org>
and subject line Re: bug#67620: Better indent-rigidly prompt
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #67620,
regarding Better indent-rigidly prompt
to be marked as done.

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help-debbugs <at> gnu.org.)


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67620: https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=67620
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From: Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: Better indent-rigidly prompt
Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2023 16:34:40 +0800

What does "Indent region with TAB" mean?
To the layman it means put tabs at the beginning of each line.

But here it means something different:
Indent region with TAB, <left>, <right>, S-<left>, S-<right>

So maybe indent-rigidly should prompt with
Indent region with <left>, <right>, S-<left>, S-<right>, or TAB

In fact that is their order in the docstring!

Else one stares at the prompt for 30 seconds tying to figure out what
it is trying to say.

Or maybe say
Type TAB, <left>, <right>, S-<left>, S-<right>, to indent region
or
Type <left>, <right>, S-<left>, S-<right>, or TAB to indent region

Also it seems C-x C-i is easier to type than C-x TAB. So maybe mention
that one can type either. (Yes, same bytes sent, at least on a VT100.)

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From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
Cc: 67620-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#67620: Better indent-rigidly prompt
Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2023 15:08:22 +0200

> Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2023 18:55:45 +0800
> From: Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
> Cc: 67620 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> Thanks for fixing it. I was talking about when you're reading the 
> sentence and you get halfway through and then you start to think.
> 
> As far as documenting C-i,. Perhaps put in the docstring.

We don't document the bindings in doc strings, because users can
rebind commands, and then the doc string will be incorrect.

There are also technical problems with referring to a single binding
when a command has several ones.

So I think this aspect will remain the user's responsibility (the
Emacs manual explains that TAB and C-i are the same).

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