Mail Archives: djgpp/1997/08/18/12:04:52
Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> Well, expectation is obviously a matter of personal taste and learning
> how to use the tool.
And info isn't even customisable.
> > And searching it is
> > a pain - with man|less I just do / and then the RE to search for,
> > and it searches the whole thing.
>
> I don't get this one. Doesn't the `s' (for `search') command do this for
> you in Info?
Does it? How about backwards? How about 'n' and 'N' to repeat the
search ('N' reverses the search order)? How about maintaining a list
of what has been searched for (in less I can do '/' then scroll through
the list of things I've searched for and re-search or change them)? How
about highlighting the string I've found?
Info feels to me as though it was intended to use with a mouse and the
keyboard interface was an after thought. That may not be true, and I've
never used it with a mouse (I don't have a mouse driver installed), but
it's the impression I get.
> Don't get this one, either. I usually type "info gcc" and that's all.
> What ``arcane set of flags'' are you talking about?
-f some_file - info finds the term with plain "info xxx" if and only if
the info files are linked into its database. Otherwise you have to specify
the file.
> You lost me on these also. ``Lack of global search''? What's wrong with
> the `s' command?
It doesn't work on any web browser I've seen. Note I said "hyperlink
databases in general", not just info - the majority have no global search,
they only search within one 'page'.
I was pointing out that I'm not exactly an impartial critic, because the
paradigm is alien to my way of thinking. Therefore, take criticisms from
me on the subject as being something less than the Word of God(tm) <g>...
> ``Having to follow links''? If you just press Space
> time and again (which should be familiar, since you use `less'),
How about page down and page up, and the cursor arrows? I don't just want
to go down.
> Info
> will go through all the sections and subsections in sequence, making a
> depth-first search. If you don't like hyperlinks, then don't use them.
As I said, I don't. I convert info files to flat text. Unfortunately with
most hyperlink stuff I don't have that choice, because it's either encoded
(Windows help files and the like) or the only information is in the links
(HTML stuff).
> > (Sorry, Eli, but I use vi (in fact vim) in preference to emacs.
>
> Why sorry? I don't have any money invested in Emacs, and I don't ask
> others to like the tools that I do. If vim is what you like, go ahead
> and use it. Gesundheit!
Well, actually more apologies to those who have put in the effort writing
the thing I suppose. They like it. Other people don't like the interfaces
to the utilities I write, often, because I like things which are easy to
type (and yes, that means "obscure flags" but at least they're /my/ obscure
flags <g>) rather than being flashy...
(And I don't like GUIs. Give me a command line - or preferably a dozen or
so command lines - anyday...)
Chris C
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