Re: Towards 1.0... (was Re: SV: [jed-users] New Color objects)

[Guenter Milde <G.Milde@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 25 Feb 2002 10:47:39 +0100 wrote SANGOI DINO <sangoid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> Some months ago I wrote a script to handle some choices in a simple
> fashion. Right now it's not complete, but is useable, so I wrote a
> simple 'jed configurator' with it.
>
> To try it, get the attached files, put 'config.sl' somewhere in
> your JED_LIBRARY_PATH, and evaluate jedcfg.sl.

I tried it and it seems to do the job well. I have some points, though:

- The Right/Left keybinding for choices was not intuitive to me...
  I'd like either a line telling the binding or a completely different set
  of bindings (which is more like the one I know from dialog windows and
  which is the one I would try in such a situation):
      TAB and Return go to the next input field (i.e. line in our case)
      Shift_TAB goes to the prev input field
      Up/Down keys cycle the list of choices
  (Of course this is just a proposal open for discussion.)

- I would appreciate a "completions" feature that shows all the choices
  in a list. (Usually I would expect TAB to start this, which clashes with
  the abovementioned bindings :-( )
  
- For documented variables and functions, the configurator could use the 
  brand-new (still unpublished) mini-help feature of help.sl that displays
  the Synopsis line of the online help in the minibuffer. (A keybinding
  "^H/F1" for the full help would make the linking complete.)

> BEWARE!!!! pressing Control-W will overwrite your ~/.jedrc !!!! make a
> backup first!

How about an automatic backup? (Still to be solved: just one backup or
numbered backups up to a certain level (say 10).)

> BTW, the script was written on Linux. I tried it on SCO and works OK.
> It also runs on Windows 2000, but writes to the wrong file. I haven't a
> VMS machine to try this on it. Tested on jed 0.99.14 and 0.99.15.

(what is the right jedrc file on Windows?)

> > or even distributing a setup script (setup-jed).  Ideally
> > such customization should be available from the menus, e.g.,
> > Edit->Save Settings.

This menu topic should replace all(?) Variable values and keybindings in
.jedrc with the actual values. Another one (Edit->Preferences) could be used
to call Dino's script.

> For 'wannabe jed masters' the new help engine from Guenter is a must. I'm
> using it and I can't live without now.

Still there are improvements ahead. Additionally to the "installation
wizard", I'd like to implement a more user-friendly way of changing
keybindings and variable-values accessible from the help:

- When viewing help for a variable, pressing 's' or 'c' would allow the user
  to set it to a new value
     var = read_mini(varname+" New value:", "var", ""); 
     
- When viewing help for a function or the current keybinding of a function, 
  a keystroke ('b' bind, 's' set, 'c' change???) would allow to bind this
  function to a key.  
    Problems -> Suggestions: 
      * which keymap  -> choice: global/local
      * functions with compulsory arguments  -> ask for argument

- When viewing the binding of a key, this binding should be changeable by
  's' with read_mini("Key "+ keystring+" New binding:", "old_binding", "");

I.e. all the help types (apropos, where is, show key, function help,
variable help) share a set of keybindings (maybe based on MOST)
   q/ESC quit
   e          edit
   TAB         next "link" (defined object)
   Enter help for word at point
   w         where_is          (defaults to the actual help-topic)
   f         function help           (defaults to the actual help-topic)
   v         variable help           (defaults to the actual help-topic)
   k         show key
   m         mini help           (defaults to the actual help-topic)
  s/c(?) set/change           (defaults to the actual help-topic)

Now, a user can do an apropos to see what functions there are for closing
the buffer, TAB to a candidate, press Enter to see the full help,
[optionally use the history to go back and try another candidate, possibly
TAB to a function in the SEE ALSO section], press 's' to bind this function
to a key (with "global keymap/current keymap" decision and hint for the
current keybinding of the chosen key). Finally, Edit-> save settings would
store the new binding to .jedrc or another special file to be read in by
.jedrc.

Before I start actually implementing this, I'd like to hear comments about
feasability and need of such a feature (and improvement suggestions :-).

> > Of course as I have said many times the documentation is woefully
> > inadequate and needs improvement.  I really feel that such
> > documentation needs to be geared at the newbie because more
> > experienced users can figure things out for themselves as have many on
> > this list.
> >
> Even the most experienced user started as a newbie :)) 

Yes, I remember the hard time when I had difficultis to find out how to copy
and paste text becouse jed calls it "yank"! Alse the difference between
"kill" and "delete" was not clear to me... Also, at this time jed did not
have the menus which improved newbee-usability a lot.

Two suggestions:

- A "keywords" feature would be a very helpfull supplement to the already
  usefull "apropos" (as some functions are IMHO inadequately named).
  
  * A list of keywords is callabel by read_with_completion through
    Help->Keywords
    
  * Each keyword has covers a topic (strings, buffer, folding, ...)
  
  * Online-help entries for the keywords list all the relevant functions in
    the SEE ALSO section
    
  * The function/variable online help text gets a new section KEYWORDS
    (which will become "links" in the new help.sl)      

- Menu Topics display the called function-name in the minibuffer (+ an
  existing keybinding) if no other message appeares there (feature stolen
  from LyX). This allows the user to see the online help of the relevant
  function and to bind it to a key.

> I think that Guido's quick reference could be a valid help for newbies,
> maybe it can be distributed with jed? I'm also (slowly) writing an HTML
> parser for jed (mostly for fun), and the aim is to be able to parse
> decently the jed-quickref.

Guidos jed-quickref is AFAIK in textmacro (tm), there should be no problem
to convert it to text and offer as one of the "browse-docs" subtopics. (I
still hope to see a slang version of tm2txt some day, as this would allow
the production of online-help texts from within jed (maybe on-the-fly).)
(OTOH, I would appreciate a HTML parser very much, maybe a HTML <->
structured Text converter?)

Sincerely

Guenter

--
G.Milde@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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