Re: C-h k is overly verbose/wrong for some menu bindings

[Kim F. Storm]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

>     This has now been fixed to say 
>
>        <menu-bar> <edit> <select-paste> (any string)
>
>     Wouldn't it be clearer to say
>
>        <menu-bar> <edit> <select-paste> <any string>
>
>     This shows that the "any string" part is part of the sequence.
>
> Not necessarily.  It could also lead people to think it refers to a
> menu item named `any string'.  I chose parens to avoid that possible
> misunderstanding.
>
> Perhaps an added space after "(any string)" would make it clearer.

I don't think so...

Look at this example:

C-h k "Buffers menu" "some buffer name"

gives:

<menu-bar> <buffer> (any string) runs the command menu-bar-select-buffer
   which is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `menu-bar'.


But in this context, (any string) doesn't make sense.  There are
no strings to select in the Buffers menu.

A better wording would be:

  <menu-bar> <buffer> (any buffer name)

or simpler

  <menu-bar> <buffer> <buffer name>


As I see it, the general problem is that some commands have multiple
menu bindings -- and we want to give a generic help message for them.
Your fix is only related to such commands bound to a sequence ending
in a string, and reports that low-level information to the user.

I still think that rather than trying to fix the current scheme, it
would make more sense to fix the whole reporting of menu bindings to
use the actual menu items as I previously suggested and then fix this
on top of that, e.g.

Buffers=>Buffer_Name runs the command menu-bar-select-buffer
   which is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `menu-bar'.


-- 
Kim F. Storm <address@hidden> http://www.cua.dk