Re: Shifting a column left or right using key

[B. T. Raven]

"Drew Adams" <drew.adams@oracle.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.447.1145124370.9609.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org...
>     It might be useful to the rest of us tyros to see something like
this in
>     these cases:
>
>     >(In v22 or cvs) C-h d rectangle RET mentions some more.
>
>     In half of the things I try (after reading about them here) I find
>     that they are just roundabout ways of running the ding function. If
>     I knew only as much as I did six months ago this would have been a
>     complete mystery to me. Now that I have 22.0.50, I can quickly run
>     that too and retry the example in that version. With the version
>     note included, those without the cvs loaded in their systems would
>     not have bothered to try the exampe. (More efficient, no?)
>
> Speaking of "complete mystery", I had to read your post a couple times
to
> figure out what you were saying (maybe I was low on coffee).  I do agree
> with your point, however, which, for any others who had trouble parsing
your
> message, is just this: It helps to mention the version of Emacs you're
> talking about.
>
> BTW, if the OP had referenced the command name
(`apropos-documentation'),
> instead of only the new keybinding (`C-h d'), there would have been no
need
> to know the Emacs version. The command itself is not new; it is as old
as
> the hills.

Or "instead of only the keybinding" since there does not appear to have
been an *old* keybinding.  (At least in 21.3 where "C-h w
apropos-documentation" doesn't find one. (Here interpreting "new" as "new
and improved" (i.e. different) rather than ex nihilo exstans (i.e. now
bound to a key for the first time). But context is everything.

Slight expansion of a telegraphic style maybe too compressed for
non-native speakers/readers of English:

 [With] half of the things I try (after reading about them here) I find
that they [,the aforesaid things,] are just roundabout ways of running the
ding function. If I knew only as much as [no more than] I did six months
ago this [example] would have been a complete mystery to me. Now that I
have [version] 22.0.50 [installed], I can quickly run that [version] too
and retry [your] example in that version. With the version note included
[if you had included a note anent the version], those without the cvs
[version] loaded in their systems would not have bothered to try the
examp[l]e. (More efficient, no?)

Sorry to sound so querulous. It may be nitpicking but I was just trying to
make a suggestion that would help us newbies to learn Emacs faster. The
default interpretation of the term Emacs (except in forums dedicated to
the bleeding edge) should refer to the latest stable release, imho.

Ed.