Re: [RP] help showing unbound commands?

[Martin Samuelsson]

On Sat, Jan 19, 2002 at 09:47:36PM +0000, Doug Kearns wrote:
> > i think it would be a good thing to see unbound commands in the help as well
> > as those bound to keys.
>  
> I'm not sure about this. What is your motivation?

i think it would be for the greater good. it wouldn't be to much use for
anyone on this list obviously, since we are experts on ratpoison and know
more or less exactly what every command does. for a novice user though,
getting a list of commands available would problary be helpful.

most people don't read heavy documentation unless they have to. compare with
yourselfs; how often do you type a command with the argument --help instead
of viewing it's man page? getting such compact information on what's
availiable really is helpful to me.

making computers easy to use is a design goal of ratpoison isn't it? and 
making ratpoison itself useable should be the main topic of this mailing 
list i guess?

it's not like i'm asking to include a full help browsing system. i merely 
see this as adding completeness to a function that already exists.
  
> However there are no default aliases defined, so it's usefulness
> probably depends on the complexity of your configuration. I

you're right! putting such a function in help wouldn't make sence. running
alias without arguments would be the correct way to show the alias list.

> I just use a single rcfile so 'grep alias .ratpoisonrc' is usually
> sufficient.

i can easyly(spl?) think up sitations where this is not sufficent. let's say
that you have a script generating some aliases for example.
--
/martin