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 ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) _______________________________________________ Bug-texinfo mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-texinfo
