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Re: Manual: indexes are missing links


From: Eli Zaretskii
Subject: Re: Manual: indexes are missing links
Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2007 22:39:44 +0200

> From: Juri Linkov <address@hidden>
> Cc: address@hidden
> Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2007 11:52:54 +0200
> 
> > Why do you think it's more important to see the node names in the
> > index than it is in any other menu?
> 
> Menu item names in any other menu are often just a modified version
> of the node name, so it makes sense to hide node names as e.g. in:
> 
> * Format: Outline Format.        What the text of an outline looks like.
> * Motion: Outline Motion.        Special commands for moving through outlines.
> * Visibility: Outline Visibility.  Commands to control what is visible.
> * Views: Outline Views.            Outlines and multiple views.
> 
> Unlike this, index entry names contain no information about node names
> to which they belong, and it is helpful to see them, e.g.:

I asked why it is more important in an index, and your response is
that it's ``helpful to see'', which doesn't really explain anything.

Suppose that a regular menu item did not have a resemblance to its
node--would you still say then that it is more important to show nodes
in the index, and why?

> * face-background:                       Attribute Functions.
> * face-bold-p:                           Attribute Functions.
> * face-differs-from-default-p:           Face Functions.
> * face-documentation <1>:                Face Functions.
> * face-documentation:                    Accessing Documentation.
> 
> It is especially important to see node names with the same index names
> like in the two last lines above.

The last two lines are actually a case of less than optimal indexing:
the two index entries should have had different qualifiers, to tell
the reader which aspects are described in each referenced place.  Like
this, for example:

    * advice, enabling and disabling:        Enabling Advice.     (line   6)
    * advice, preactivating:                 Preactivation.       (line   6)

I will fix this when I have time, unless someone beats me to it.

> There is enough horizontal space in the index menus to leave node
> names displayed where they were displayed for many years so far
> without complaints from users.

The same can be said about hiding node names in general.




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