Re: Prefixed manual describe-function and api overview

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > It is like `describe-function`
  > (C-h f), but before you get to select a function you have to select a
  > "topic" first. The topics are the clickable links at
  > https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/index.html#Top.
  > Once you select a topic, then you get to select a function but your
  > choices are limited to the functions of said topic.

It is worth a try.  Let's see whether users find that helps them
find the information they are looking for.

To find out whether users find it helpful, we might want to publish it
and ask users to try it.

Here's an idea: make describe-function accept topic names as well as function
names.  When the input is a topic name, it would follow up by doing what
you've implemented.  If the minibuffer prompt explains this feature,
users might discover it on their own.  And it won't require a new command.


-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)