Re: "What's This?" in Describe submenu

[Kim F. Storm]

"Richard M. Stallman" <address@hidden> writes:

>     What is the purpose of the "What's This?" entry in the Describe submenu
>     of the Help menu?  The only difference to the "Describe Key..." entry
>     beneath is that the latter is bound to `describe-key-1' which is
>     not defined anywhere.
>
> A discussion in November 2002, based on noting that Windows menus have
> a "What's This" feature, concluded that (present and former) Windows
> users would recognize the name "What's This" and know what to do with
> it.  So it would help them.
>
> I have never been a Windows user, so I can't judge for myself.
> Do those here with Windows experience agree that that menu item
> will be understood by many users?

In its current form, it does IN NO WAY resemble what a Windoze user
would expect from the "What's this" function.

When you click on the "What's this" function in Windoze (typically not
available as a menu item, but as a [?] icon), the cursor changes shape
to an arrow with a question mark, and then the user can (in principle)
click on anything in the application window to get help for that item
(typically an input field).  So it gives help for _visible_items_, not
key bindings!

If we want to keep the "What's this" menu item, then we should implement
it properly, and not provide something completely unrelated.

-- 
Kim F. Storm <address@hidden> http://www.cua.dk