Re: Better default values for tooltip padding and `tooltip-hide-delay'?

[Luc Teirlinck]

Chong Yidong wrote:

   Another tooltip-related note: it seems to me that most other
   applications do not display tooltips for menu-bar items.  The idea,
   presumably, is that since a menu-bar item consists of text, that is
   enough to explain what the item does;

The trouble is that this assumption is often false.  Actually, many
other applications have a manual doing essentially nothing else but
explain what the toolbar and menu bar items do.  I very often have to
read the manual to figure these things out.

In the extremely rare instances where I use the Emacs menu bar, I find
many of the provided help-echo messages very useful and often
absolutely necessary for a correct understanding.  Maybe you use the
menu bar much more frequently than I do and hence you do not need
these help echos any more.  If I often need them, I would be surprised
if complete newbies never needed them.

This entire thread is about the fact that tooltips popping up in your
face are annoying.  I know, that is why I disable Tooltip Mode.  I get
exactly the same text in the echo area, where it does not annoy me.
Tooltip Mode is enabled by default because supposedly newbies are
accustomed to tooltips.  But if you are going to use the fact that
tooltips are annoying as an argument to use help echos less often or
make them less extensive, then that is definitely _not_ going to help
newbies (nor more advanced users who may often need the help too).  If
tooltips bother you, as they do me, just turn off Tooltip Mode, as I do.

Sincerely,

Luc Teirlinck.