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

[Luc Teirlinck]

Eli Zaretskii wrote:

   So, to me it sounds like we do something very similar to what you
   described, with 2 notable exceptions: the change in mouse pointer
   shape, and the fact that the help text is not displayed in a tooltip.
   Am I missing something?

You are missing several important differences.

First of all, as already pointed out by me and by Stefan, if a user
familiar with "What's this" clicks on the minibuffer, he expects an
explanation of what that area is used for, not the mouse-drag-region
docstring.

Secondly, if a KDE or MS Windows user uses the "What's This" feature,
he expects information aimed at newbies.  If he uses the Emacs menu
item of the same name he usually gets information aimed at Elisp
programmers.  Suppose I am a newbie trying to figure out more about
the "What's This" menu item itself.  I click on it and then click on
it again.  Result:

<menu-bar> <help-menu> <describe> <describe-key> runs the command describe-key
   which is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `help'.
It is bound to C-h k, <f1> k, <help> k, <menu-bar> <help-menu> <describe> 
<describe-key>, <menu-bar> <help-menu> <describe> <describe-key-1>.
(describe-key key &optional untranslated up-event)

Display documentation of the function invoked by key.
key should be a key sequence--when calling from a program,
pass a string or a vector.
If non-nil untranslated is a vector of the untranslated events.
It can also be a number in which case the untranslated events from
the last key hit are used.


Now, that makes everything crystal clear.  Exactly the basic stuff
every Emacs newbie needs to know.

Sincerely,

Luc.