Re: Emacs Book Vs Emacs Manuals

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Tue, 12 May 2015 09:55:47 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com>
> 
> > Each chapter in the Emacs manual is a short intro to the subject of
> > that chapter.
> 
> There is a fundamental difference between logical and pedagogical order.

Indeed, it is.  But I don't see the relevance of that to the issue at
hand.

> The emacs manual may be logically structured.

No, it is intended to be pedagogically structured.  If you find
evidence to the contrary, i.e. style that is typical of academic
papers, please report that as a bug.

> Joe Noob has a need that is completely covered in chaps i,(more likely i,j,k)
> of the manual. How does he go from his need to chaps i,j,k?

Via cross-references and menus, of course.  And via index search.

> Lets say that dired and even better wdired is exactly what he needs. How is he
>  going to find that out?

I would start by typing "i directory TAB", then see "directory
listing" there, and select it.  And there, lo and behold, I'd see
this:

  The file system groups files into "directories".  A "directory listing"
  is a list of all the files in a directory.  Emacs provides commands to
  create and delete directories, and to make directory listings in brief
  format (file names only) and verbose format (sizes, dates, and authors
  included).  Emacs also includes a directory browser feature called
  Dired; see *note Dired::.    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  ^^^^^

Then I'd follow that Dired hyperlink, and in the menu, due to some
sheer luck (or maybe something else) I'd see this, inter alia:

  * Wdired::                    Operating on files by editing the Dired buffer.

and also

  * Image-Dired::               Viewing image thumbnails in Dired.

and lots of other interesting and relevant topics.