RE: Help menu (was: Re: describe-bindings: ^L, bad order, naming)

[Drew Adams]

    The "Describe" sub-menu could also drop the myriad of "Describe ..."
    Describe -->
        Describe Buffer Modes...
        Describe Key or Mouse Operation ...
        Describe ...
        Describe ...
        List Key Bindings
        ---
        Describe ...
        Describe ...
        Show all of Mule Stats

    wouldn't it be easier for users to keep an oversight if we had
    something like

    Describe -->
        Buffer Modes
        Key or Mouse Operation
        ...
        Key Bindings (Keyboard Shortcuts)

FWIW, I've long done this in my library `help+.el' (which I haven't had time
to port to a version newer than Emacs 20).

 Describe ->

   This...             (C-h RET)
   Buffer Modes        (C-h m)
   Key...              (C-h k)
   Function...         (C-h f)
   Variable...         (C-h v)
   All Key Bindings    (C-h b)
   Major Mode Syntax   (C-h s)
   Apropos Commands... (C-h a)
   Apropos Variables...

The last two items should really be called "Commands..." and "Variables...",
but I just reuse the existing menu-items here (out of laziness). (There is
also an "Apropos" submenu of "Help".)

The first item, "This...", lets you type a key sequence or click something
(e.g. mode-line, minibuffer, Emacs-related name in a buffer, menu item), and
it gives you information on that object. The info is that provided by
`describe-*', plus apropos + Info doc, if appropriate.

    In the main Help menu, I don't really understand why it is structured
    the way it is. Maybe I don't have to, fair enough. But one may wonder
    why the Emacs Tutorial is at the top, but the "Read the Emacs manual"
    is in the bottom half.

    If it is "Tutorial", why is it not "Emacs manual" instead of "Read
    the Emacs Manual"?

    "Find Emacs packages' sounds like "find extra packages", but one is a
    function that lists "Included packages", the other one is a text
    explaining something.

FWIW - I have a Help-menu submenu "Learn More" that has submenus for
"Emacs", "Emacs Lisp", and additional items "Last Accessed Manual (`Info')",
"All Manuals (Info)", and "Unix Man Page...". Many of the top-level
Help-menu items are moved to the "Learn More" submenu (which is, itself,
structured). That is, it gives you high-level entries to Info, but it also
gives you separate access to Emacs stuff and Emacs-Lisp stuff.

In the case of Emacs 22+ (23?), we might consider something like that,
combining some top-level Help items with some of the stuff from submenus
"Search Documentation" and "More Manuals" in a hierarchical "Learn More"
submenu. The basic idea would be to group informational stuff together
(stuff that goes beyond `describe-*').

My (Emacs 20) "Learn More > Emacs" submenu looks like this:

  Tutorial  (C-h t)
  Manual (`Info')
  Find Command in Manual (C-h C-f)
  Find Key in Manual     (C-h C-k)
  ----------------
  Change History (News)  (C-h n)
  FAQ                    (C-h F)

The "Learn More > Emacs Lisp" submenu, for instance, looks like this:

  Intro
  Manual (`Info')
  ----------------
  Locate Library...           (C-h C-l)
  Locate Libraries by Keyword (C-h p)
  Change History              (C-h n)

The available menu items are those of Emacs 20 - they are not up-to-date for
22.