Re: docstrings and elisp reference

[Dmitry Gutov]

On 6/7/17 12:21 AM, Drew Adams wrote:
> > > they should not duplicate each other.
> >
> > Then you have something else in mind than the current
> > situation with documentation in Emacs.
>
> No, you do, if you think the intention now is that
> they duplicate each other.  It never has been.

Please look up the difference between "intention" and "current situation".

> Some of the information is often the same; that's all.

That's called "duplication".

> In particular, doc strings are written as user help.
> The interactive use, if any, is typically described
> first, and from the point of an interactive user.
> Not so, the Elisp manual.

We have different manuals, with different goals.

The fact that docstrings often describe the interactive case (when it 
exists) doesn't make them necessarily targeted at the end user. Just 
exhaustive.