Re: Fixing antediluvianisms in Emacs' UI

[Pascal J. Bourguignon]

Ilya Zakharevich <nospam-abuse@ilyaz.org> writes:

> On 2010-07-08, David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> wrote:
>> I think the point was that the manual was not deficient concerning the
>> information it provides, but in not making Xah Lee want to read it.
>
>> In a way, it is a losing battle.
>
> Why consider it in military terms?  The question at point is that
> Emacs' UI is lacking.  So just fix it: make it self-documenting, as
> any good-UI program should be...
>
> Looks like some vestiges of 80s' mentality still remains in Emacs
> design: at the time, a common misconception was that problems with UI
> may be "fixed" by updating the manuals.  Well, even if one still
> believes in this way, it is a dead end: Emacs' manual IS quite good
> already, so the improvements achieved in this way would have a trace
> value only.
>
> Now, after the flood of "grandmother revolution" [*], we know OTHER
> ways.  "Self-documenting" means the program guides the user how to use
> it.  Emacs is now flexible enough so that with most tasks, this may be
> easily achieved.
>
>   [*] this is how as one of the designers of Plan9 called the major
>       event of 90s: achievement of understanding of UI design so good
>       that UI accessible to "grandmothers" may be created.  He
>       attributes this breakthrough to effort of M$; I tend to agree...

I'm not so sure grandmothers can use Microsoft programs so easily.
I sure cannot.

It seems to me that parangons of software explorability are more in
the camp of emacs, lisp and smalltalk.  Granted, this is archived so
far mostly by giving access to the sources, so not for grandmothers.
But then, Smalltalk was designed for grandchildren...



>> People expect software to just work without reading manuals.
>
> That's right.  And when we can EASILY cater to their expectations, we should.
>
> The question at point: ISearch.  Lemme sketch one possiblity of adding
> self-documentation to ISearch (people with better UI-design experience
> must be able to find something yet better):
>
>   a) Change the prompt (configurable; verbose by default;
>      self-documentation should mention how to disable verbosity):
>
>               Isearch (F1 for help):
>
>   b) bind F1 F1 to "Open manual on basics of Isearch";
>
>   c) bind F1 to open a shrink-wrapped buffer with "Quick info" on
>      ISearch.  This info should include the `current state' (case
>      sensitivity etc) - plus information where this state "comes
>      from": e.g., whether the particular setting is mode-specific.  It
>      should also state how to toggle "I" in ISearch, toggle case-fold,
>      switch direction, regexpness, by-word, different ways to quit,
>      etc.
>
>      Should also state how to start Isearch in `a particular state'
>      (with some toggles pre-loaded).
>
> Does not look difficult to do, does it?

It's a lot of work if you have to do it manually for all the commands.
You must find a way to do it automatically.  We may require adding
declarations to commands, perhaps an improved interactive declaration?

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/