The following is a reply to an earlier part of this discussion from the djgpp-workers list.
At 08:03 AM 3/4/02 +0200, you wrote: <Snipped> >> M:\>info --apropos="selecting text" >> info: No available info files have "selecting text" in their indices. >> >> Now, I realize these failures are because the indices in the >underlying >> info files don't have any of those phrases in them, and the indices >are >> all that info has to work with. Better indices would yield better >> results. > >Indeed. A bug report is in order (IMHO, manuals for Fileutils and >Textutils need a lot of work). You could also try "c--apropos ut" as a >last resort. In general, you should go from the specific to the >general >when you are looking for such unknowns. That is, start with something >quite specific to what you want, and if not found, gradually make the >search phrase more and more general (thus potentially getting more >false hits). I'm sure you already know that. Aha! Now I see why we disagree so much on this subject. We have exactly opposite methods of searching for information. My method of searching is to start at the most general first, if necessary weeding through large swaths of useless chaff to decide how to get more specific in my search criteria. Your recommendation of trying "--apropos cut" first is exactly the reverse of how my mind works. Plus, knowing the name of the utility "cut" is exactly what my example searcher did *not* know. It was the goal of the search, not the starting point. Perhaps that was too simple an example, but it was just the most recent one of my own searches that I could recall. When I am searching a book (a reference book), I begin with the Table of Contents, looking for chapter headings that might relate to the information I need, then scanning down sub-chapter headings for more detailed information, and then finally reading actual pages in the subchapters to find the actual information. I don't generally start at the index in the back, since I usually don't know any of the detailed specifics of the subject at hand. Those details are why I am looking at the book in the first place. Using web search engines is a very similar experience. One starts with a general term, then adds additive and subtractive search terms to make the search more and more specific, until there are few enough entries to review in one sitting. That is the kind of structure and content I would like to see in "/info/dir", that would allow searchers to start at the most general and work their way down to the most specific. --------------------------------------------------------- Peter J. Farley III ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) _______________________________________________ Bug-texinfo mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-texinfo
