[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap
From: |
Dmitry Gutov |
Subject: |
Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap |
Date: |
Sun, 28 Jan 2024 20:01:11 +0200 |
User-agent: |
Mozilla Thunderbird |
On 28/01/2024 16:25, Po Lu wrote:
Dmitry Gutov <dmitry@gutov.dev> writes:
Ah, no. Installing software and browsing packages are both activities
that most computer users are implicitly familiar with.
Reading is an activity most literate _humans_ are intimately familar
with, but I'll humor you: the package list, in its present state as a
list of compact one-line descriptions, is not the sort of graphical
package manager computer users are well acquainted with. The search
facilities available in such package managers source their results from
thorough descriptions provided by package authors at the time their
packages are submitted, most unlike our cascade of package names and
keywords.
Yeah, actually it could be a worthwhile addition. We have commands like
package-menu-filter-by-description, but what they're actually filter by
is the one-line summary, nor the full description from Commentary. This
would require certain changes in the package archives, since currently
those descriptions are fetched separately on-demand.
People's capabilities are not static, but designing features which
impose fewer requirements on such is likely to help more people,
altogether.
We are imposing no new requirements, but providing _new_ and _more
helpful_ venues through which adaptive-wrap might be discovered and
enabled.
I imagine the adaptive-wrap package will be removed from ELPA sooner or
later. We might as well discuss the tradeoffs.
From the menu? Options -> Manage Emacs Packages. Either way, the fact
Why, you have neglected to mention Option -> Line Wrapping in This
Buffer -> Visual Wrap Prefix, complete with a tooltip describing its
function.
This is another example where the user is supposed to recognize the
feature by its short summary, right? "Visual Wrap Prefix Mode".
A the "tooltip describing its function" is
Display continuation lines with visual context-dependent prefix
If you think it describes it well, seems like a good package summary?
that Emacs does have packages is a widely advertised fact, everywhere
online.
And why is the fact that Emacs has a manual not suitably advertised? It
is advertised on the splash screen, literally the first screen presented
to a new Emacs user.
Use this command and search the list for keywords
vs
Open one of these big books and look for the thing you wanted
I wonder what would be considered easier (people go and Google instead).
And once you reach the packages' list, you can search across all of
them (that appear there) using a uniform approach.
No doubt, it will be an immeasurable relief to our users that the
technique for searching the package list is uniform, despite never
returning satisfactory results. Over the course of my year-long tenure
as a moderator of an Emacs instant messenger group with roughly 1000
members, not once have I seen the package list credited with the
discovery of a package shared in the group.
Your group seems to have some particular qualities that go across most
of my experience, and those experiences I've seen conveyed on the web.
Perhaps it has to do something with the particular ecosystem (it is a
company which has SunOS installed somewhere, right?).
The packages list even has a specific feature that highlights the
packages that have been added recently (since your last viewing). All in
the name of discovery. And I've taken advantage of it many times myself.
I'm still unclear on what is missing from the summary, to be honest.
The NEWS entry is more verbose, sure, but that should also apply when
the user finds a package based on the summary and clicks on it to read
the full description to verify if that's what they wanted to use.
How about "source code comments", "unbroken appearance", or any of the
myriad of other applications for adaptive-wrap that users might seek
solutions for?
These seem like words for additional context, but not the terms for
describing the thing to search for. Or I misunderstand something.
- Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap, (continued)
- Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap, Stefan Kangas, 2024/01/27
- RE: [External] : Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap, Drew Adams, 2024/01/27
- Re: [External] : Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap, Michael Albinus, 2024/01/28
- Re: [External] : Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap, Po Lu, 2024/01/28
- Re: [External] : Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap, Dmitry Gutov, 2024/01/28
- Re: [External] : Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap, Po Lu, 2024/01/28
- RE: [External] : Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap, Drew Adams, 2024/01/28
- Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap, Po Lu, 2024/01/28
- Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap, Dmitry Gutov, 2024/01/28
- Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap, Po Lu, 2024/01/28
- Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap,
Dmitry Gutov <=
- Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap, Po Lu, 2024/01/28
Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap, Po Lu, 2024/01/25
Re: Upcoming merge of adaptive-wrap, Stefan Kangas, 2024/01/25