Re: Improved help from minibuffer prompts

[Stefan Reichör]

Hi Richard!

>     In my mode the user is often asked some questions in the
>     minibuffer. Sometimes the questions need some more
>     explanations. So I decided to put the needed help in the
>     function's docstring.
>
> You didn't say which function you mean, but according to the code
> it looks like the entire doc string of the command that invoked
> the minibuffer is the help string you use.  I don't think
> that will be very natural.

I think it is convenient. Every interactive function has already a
docstring.

When I type M-x grep and get a prompt and I am not sure, what I am
asked here, I can just get the help for the function grep.

> It would be more natural to have a variable which, if non-nil, has
> extra help for the current minibuffer question.  The caller would bind
> that variable.  What do you think of that?

That is also a nice idea. I think we should use that AND we should
have a fallback solution for the docstring.

> Better: the caller binds minibuffer-extra-help to the string
> it should use.  All entry to the minibuffer binds
> minibuffer-current-extra-help to minibuffer-extra-help,
> and binds minibuffer-extra-help to nil.  This way, a recursive
> use of the minibuffer will not mistakenly use a string
> meant for the outer minibuffer level.

Not sure, if I understand that.

Consider the following function:

(defun my-defun (name)
  "Just enter a funny name."
  (interactive "sEnter a name: ")
  (message (concat "The name entered was: " name)))

Now I hit:
M-x my-defun and get the prompt "Enter a name: "
Now I hit f1 (or whatever keybinding we choose) and get the following help:

Help for my-defun:
Just enter a funny name.


Where can I bind minibuffer-extra-help?
I tried the following:

(defun my-defun (name)
  "Just enter a funny name."
  (let ((minibuffer-extra-help "Just enter a funny name."))
    (interactive "sEnter a name: ")
    (message (concat "The name entered was: " name))))

(defun my-defun (name)
  "Just enter a funny name."
  (interactive "sEnter a name: ")
  (let ((minibuffer-extra-help "Just enter a funny name."))
    (message (concat "The name entered was: " name))))

That did not work.

Any ideas?

-- 
  Stefan.