Re: Suggestion: Let the help command load autoloaded functions etc

[Lennart Borgman (gmail)]

Jason Rumney wrote:
> Lennart Borgman (gmail) wrote:
> > Richard Stallman wrote:
> > >     Wouldn't it be good if the help functions loaded autoloaded
> > > functions     etc? At least I believe this would make it a bit less
> > > confusing for     newbies. And the penalty should not be big, or?
> > >
> > > These functions give information about Emacs.  I think it would be
> > > very undesirable for them to alter the state they are examining.
> > But loading a library should not change the state of Emacs, or? Is not
> > that one of the design goals?
>
> Of course loading a library changes the state of Emacs. At very least,
> it increases the memory footprint.
> What benefit do you suppose would be gained from doing this?

A few things:

- Argument list
- Correct doc string
- Links in doc string

But, yes, one might think that the state changes are a bit too big. 
However this is the same state change is the same as you get when you 
customize something from the library in question.

A little milder suggestion just because it is close to X-max: How about 
adding a link that loads the library, something like replacing

 [Arg list not available until function definition is loaded.]

with

 [Arg list not available, _click to load function library_.]

for an autoloaded function?