Re: hyperlinks in variable's value - links to libraries

[Stefan Monnier]

>     So I added another feature, which is that clicking mouse-2
>     anywhere in the buffer (not just on a visually announced xref with
>     mouse-face highlight and everything) will try to interpret the symbol
>     under point as a var-name, fun-name, or face-name.  This has the
>     advantage of working no matter how large the output is.

> I don't understand how this helps much. Are you saying that a lot of time
> was spent actually adding the link faces (i.e. highlighting)? What I was
> referring to was the time needed to look up the link destinations - in the
> case of linking to libraries, `locate-library' can take a while.

When you middle-click, there's only one symbol to lookup, so even if it
takes "a while" it's instantaneous.  OTOH when you have to add xrefs
everywhere, you have to look at every single symbol and do the work there.

>     It also works in the docstrings where the author forgot
>     to mark symbols with `...'. The main disadvantage of course is the
>     lack of visual cue which makes this feature barely known.

> Yes, that usability limitation is pretty important.

I think the lack of keyboard and menu bindings is more important and easier
(aka trivial) to fix.
Note also that if you're looking at the value of `features' and feel like
visiting the library that provide "toto", you may want to simply do M-x
find-library RET toto RET.  It's not like adding xrefs is crucial, it's just
a convenience.


        Stefan