Re: Apropos commands and regexps

[Kim F. Storm]

Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> writes:

> On 12 May 2002 address@hidden wrote:
> 
> >         Apropos command (regexp):
> > 
> > which may be nonsense to some novice users.
> > 
> > 
> > Wouldn't it be simpler (for a novice user -- and for advanced users
> > too) to simply write one or more words (substrings) and then search
> > for all combinations of those words (substrings) in the relevant list.
> > 
> > E.g. C-h a open file RET  would find any matching
> > 
> >         open.*file and file.*open
> > 
> > BTW, this obvious example doesn't find `find-file' :-(
> > Maybe we should have a defalias open-file -> find-file ?
> 
> Perhaps we should have a new command for that, and name it something like
> apropos-keywords.

I disagree.

IMO, the purpose of the various apropos commands are to find
(let's call it) "interesting information".

To fulfill that purpose, all apropos commands should
        a) be easy to use - especially for the novice user
        b) accept the same type of "search patterns".

I think giving the apropos commands a keyword based interface is a
good way to accomplish (a), and having an specific apropos-keywords
command breaks (b).

Also, what would apropos-keywords look for?  `commands', `variables'
`documentation', or "all of the above" ?

++kfs