RE: [External] : Re: Spaces rather than tabs by a major mode hook

[Drew Adams]

> I cannot find anything about indentation in Emacs GUI menu.

(I assume you mean menu-bar menu `Options'.)

Consider filing an enhancement request to add what
you think would help there: `M-x report-emacs-bug'.

But `M-x customize-option indent' tells you there
are quite a few options dealing with indentation.
It shows me these in Emacs 26 alone:

Info-fontify-indented-text-chars
Info-fontify-indented-text-manuals
c-indent-comment-alist
c-indent-comments-syntactically-p
c-label-minimum-indentation
c-special-indent-hook
c-syntactic-indentation
c-syntactic-indentation-in-macros
c-tab-always-indent
custom-buffer-indent
electric-indent-mode
fill-individual-varying-indent
fortran-comment-indent-char
fortran-comment-indent-style
fortran-comment-line-extra-indent
fortran-continuation-indent
fortran-do-indent
fortran-if-indent
fortran-line-number-indent
fortran-minimum-statement-indent-fixed
fortran-minimum-statement-indent-tab
fortran-structure-indent
indent-tabs-mode
js-chain-indent
js-curly-indent-offset
js-expr-indent-offset
js-indent-align-list-continuation
js-indent-first-init
js-indent-level
js-paren-indent-offset
js-square-indent-offset
js-switch-indent-offset
lisp-backquote-indentation
lisp-body-indent
lisp-indent-backquote-substitution-mode
lisp-indent-function
lisp-indent-maximum-backtracking
lisp-indent-offset
lisp-lambda-list-keyword-parameter-indentation
lisp-loop-forms-indentation
lisp-loop-keyword-indentation
lisp-simple-loop-indentation
lisp-tag-body-indentation
lisp-tag-indentation
mail-indentation-spaces
message-indent-citation-function
message-indentation-spaces
speedbar-indentation-width
standard-indent
tab-always-indent

If you file an enhancement request for menu
`Options', you'll want to think about just what
you envision for "[some]thing about indentation
in Emacs GUI menu."

> And Emacs users will stick to their habits and will say, well, if you
> wish to customize anything use setq or customize options. However, it
> may reject users or create esoteric impressions, that Emacs is not for
> everybody, but rather for advanced users.

The difficulty is not so much providing something
for everyone.  The difficulty, even impossibility,
is providing just what an arbitrary person might
want/need - immediately, directly, effortlessly.

It's about discoverability, but also ease of use
once discovered.  It's a big challenge, whatever
the application/interface.  Emacs does a pretty
good job tackling the problem, I think.  And
anyone can suggest improvements.

When you move from the point of view of "MOI" and
your individual, immediate needs to the challenge
of providing everything for everyone, easily and
more or less directly, you see that things are
not so simple and that there are tradeoffs.

Emacs is not your typical UI/editor/....  That's
for sure.  Most of us would say "Thank goodness".
But no one's required to stay with Emacs or love
it.  Some people like Ferrari's; some prefer
pickup trucks.  That's normal.  Vive la difference!

> So, tell me, how am I supposed as user to get some indentation
> settings without going through bushes of torns until I come to full
> understanding what is going on?

Apropos commands, help (menu-bar menu, `C-h'
commands), `i' in manuals.  Online forums and
Q&A sites, mailing lists, googling.

How do you find help for anything?  The bigger
the repository you're asking, the wider the
search space.  Think about googling: learning
to do it well makes a big difference - poor
asking results in poor help.  Pounding the
table typically doesn't help.

> By the way, when I click "More" the function `electric-indent-mode' on
> that place is not linked to anything, I cannot just click on it to
> understand it, and what follows is that ... I simply cannot find a common
> option, I cannot find it, even though I used customization search
> feature, I wrote "indent" and I got bunch of nonsense, no real
> guidance, I cannot possibly do it, neither I can understand "how to
> see `electric-indent-mode' command for a description of this minor
> mode".

File an enhancement request if you have a
concrete suggestion for improvement.  Just
howling in the dark doesn't help anyone much.