Re: i in Info can't get me to main definition right away

[Eli Zaretskii]

On 17 Feb 2002, Dan Jacobson wrote:

> I am in emacs' Info gawk manual.  I hit "i" "sub" thinking that I will
> be sent to the main definition of sub() in the gawk manual.
> Unfortunately I will have to hit lots of "," etc. before I get even
> near.

In the stand-alone Info reader, you can try "i sub TAB", i.e. hit TAB 
before you hit RET.  If it completes "sub" to something that sounds as 
what you are looking for, press RET.  If not, hit TAB again, and it will 
pop up a list of possible completions, so you could see what are you 
against, and possibly type more text to disambiguate the search.  The 
TAB-completion is described in the manual of the stand-alone Info reader.

The EMacs Info reader will support TAB completion in the `i' command in a 
future version (the code is already written and committed to the CVS).

In general, "sub" is a poorly chosen string to look up in the manual (too 
general), so it doesn't surprise me that you needed to hit `,' many 
times.  An alternative strategy would be to go to the chapter describing 
the built-in functions and make your way from there.

> These manuals have main definitions of functions... isn't I supposed
> to zip to them?

I'd expect the Gawk manual to have an entry "sub, a built-in function", or 
something to that effect.  If there's no such entry, it should be added, 
IMHO (and likewise for the other built-ins).  Then the TAB trick 
mentioned above would help you find the right place much faster.

> Why is Info so much more niftier than man if I can get to the
> "SYNOPSIS" of things I need in man but not as fast in Info?

In the stand-alone reader, try "info --usage PROGRAM", I think that's what 
you want.  Or use the `O' (Capital O) command from inside the reader.