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Re: Discussion on the structure and purpose of /info/dir
From: |
Peter J. Farley III |
Subject: |
Re: Discussion on the structure and purpose of /info/dir |
Date: |
Tue, 05 Mar 2002 00:35:35 -0500 |
At 08:56 AM 3/4/02 +0200, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
<Snipped>
>It is my opinion that menus are not suited for searching for specific
>issues. The right vehicle for this is "info --apropos".
>
>An index for DIR might be a good idea, but since indexing is
something
>humans (as opposed to programs) should do, I doubt that this would be
a
>practical alternative to "info --apropos".
OK, I guess here is where the difference between intention and
possibility comes in. That the menu "/info/dir" is not suited to
searching for specific issues is an accident/intention of the current
design. Adding more content to that menu broadens its scope so that it
*can* serve as a "first pass" at searching the information tree, using
human scanning and intelligence in place of indexed searches by a
program. That is, there is the *possibility* of "/info/dir" acting as
a better information resource than its current status as "just a menu"
would imply.
I'm not trying to make it into a full conceptual search tool. As you
say, that takes indexing, which is something humans do far better than
info can. However, by imposing *less* work than is needed for better
indexing, and imposing more *structure* and mandating more *content* be
provided (but not much more than already exists) from each package's
maintainers for "/info/dir", we create a *better* tool (not an ideal
one, just better) than we had before, at less cost than full and better
indexing support from those maintainers.
The ideal solution is not my goal. Just a better one than we currently
have.
But it would be nice to have a "@dirsubcategory" command, or its
functional equivalent.
---------------------------------------------------------
Peter J. Farley III (address@hidden)