Re: Changes in the menu bar

[Sam Steingold]

> * In message <address@hidden>
> * On the subject of "Re: Changes in the menu bar"
> * Sent on Mon, 26 Nov 2001 09:14:35 +0100
> * Honorable address@hidden (Kai Großjohann) writes:
>
> Sam Steingold <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > I don't think of "Apropos" as a "newbie" feature.
> > (as opposed to "Describe")

what I meant was that the people who use apropos are more sophisticated
than those who I usually call a newbie (i.e., those who did not bother
to read the tutorial yet and "do basic editing with the menu bar and
scroll bar using the mouse").

> And changing the wording in the menu from "Apropos Variable" to
> "Variable Matching Regexp" is a negligible price to pay for making
> the feature more accessible to the newbies.

I think that this is a trade off between making this accessible to the
newbies and moving the "newbies" into "gurus".  Also, the menus should
be usable for newbies and gurus alike.  I am not quite a newbie anymore
but I do use the menu for many "rare" tasks, and I do appreciate it when
the menu item name is close to the command name.  This transparency is
invaluable.

The commands are called "apropos", and it pays to have this name in the
menu - if nothing else then to teach the users the names of the commands
they use.  The explanation of what it means should be in the help string
which _is_ used mostly by the newbies.

This is the old strategy: there are many ways to abbreviate something,
but only one way to spell it in full (that's why Lisp function names are
so long :-).  There are many ways to name the menu item - "Find
feature", "Search for an object" &c (and many should find a way into the
help strings), but only one way to transmit the information about what
command is actually being called.

BTW, tags-apropos is called "apropos" in the "Edit"/"go to" menu.

-- 
Sam Steingold (http://www.podval.org/~sds)
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