Re: Emacs setup assistants

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Ted Zlatanov <address@hidden>
> Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 15:07:35 -0400
> 
> You're thinking like a programmer and/or power user :)
> 
> Normal users rarely appreciate this sort of view of the wizard
> sequence.

Then what _do_ they prefer?

> The point is, give the user the illusion of a straight decision line
> that they can use back and forth consistently.

I agree, but where did my suggestion deviate from this principle?

> > Other buttons or links could lead to advanced customization options
> > and in-depth descriptions for those who want that.
> 
> That's a good idea, but it should be clearly separated from the
> regular assistant.  Maybe @assistantadvanced tags should be used to
> surround such options, and the user can show or hide them.

A button labeled "Advanced" should be good enough.

> I absolutely agree Customize could be useful.  So far in my
> experiments to find a useful syntax, I have been doing something like
> this:
> 
> @ifassistant

If we go for Texinfo-like syntax, I'd suggest to choose one that will
not require changes in the Texinfo language and its existing parsers.
Here's one possibility to do that:

@ignore @c assistant

@node Hello, choose a server

@variable server :string "default.server.com"

@text

You can define the server: @variable{server}

@end text

....
@end ignore @c end assistant