You can improve the documentation system. :) Robby
On Sat, Jun 25, 2011 at 4:20 PM, Neil Van Dyke <n...@neilvandyke.org> wrote: > Forgot to mention: I could also use quick-reference information of > procedure/macro syntax/args in Emacs, for displaying in echo area or tooltip > as you're editing a use of the procedure/macro. > > So, how the quick-reference gets implemented might influence how getting the > URL for more documentation gets implemented. > > Neil Van Dyke wrote at 06/25/2011 04:13 AM: >> >> If I'm in Emacs, and I have a symbol for some Racket standard library >> procedure or syntax, and I want to get the URL (or open the URL in browser) >> for the documentation for that symbol... what is a good and fast way to do >> that? >> >> Ideas I've considered so far: >> >> 1. Use "racket/help". I don't want to do this, since I'd really prefer >> not to keep a "racket" process open for this purpose, and invoking "racket" >> each time is uncomfortably slow. (As the below timings show, the "help" >> macro is not very fast: on my 2GHz dual-core (with no swap), when the >> pertinent files *are* cached by Linux, getting the URL takes about 2.6 >> seconds. When caches are empty except for what is needed to start the >> "racket" process, getting the URL takes about 15.6 seconds. Looking up >> *subsequent* symbols in the same "racket" process takes only around 0.2 >> seconds, however.) >> >> 2. Keep a "racket" process open and use some lookup of my own design. I'm >> guessing this is the same as "racket/help", and so I have the same >> objections. >> >> 3. Have Emacs find the appropriate "index.html" on the filesystem or on >> "racket-lang.org", and then send a URL to that with the "q" query parameter >> for my symbol, letting the JS look up the documentation, and waiting for the >> JS the first time. This will at least get me a list of search hits, but >> won't jump to the documentation for the exact symbol. >> >> 4. Have Emacs load the documentation indexes (perhaps in the background >> when idle, at startup, and when we notice they change) and do the lookup in >> Emacs. This is what Quack did for older PLT documentation, and it stopped >> working when the documentation format changed and I didn't have time to >> rewrite. I could also be sensitive about things like which "#lang" we were >> in (like I could with an external process, if I passed it the "#lang" >> information). >> >> Any more ideas/thoughts? (Other than pressing me on why I'd rather not >> keep a "racket" process open for this purpose. Eventually the new Emacs >> mode, Meow, will probably do that for things like Check Syntax, but I don't >> want to go there yet if I don't have to.) >> >> Note that all these require some notion of *from which Racket install tree >> or which Racket version on the Web do you want this documentation*, and >> that's some HCI and coding work that has to be done in any case. >> >> ---- BEGIN ---- >> ~ echo 3 | sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches >> 3 >> ~ echo '(display "hello, world!\n")' | racket >> Welcome to Racket v5.1.1. >> > hello, world! >> > >> ~ time echo "(help begin)" | racket >> Welcome to Racket v5.1.1. >> > Loading help index... >> Sending to web browser... >> file: /usr/local/racket-5.1.1/share/racket/doc/reference/begin.html >> anchor: (form._((quote._~23~25kernel)._begin)) >> Starting Firefox... >> > >> >> real 0m15.584s >> user 0m2.472s >> sys 0m0.180s >> ~ time echo "(help begin)" | racket >> Welcome to Racket v5.1.1. >> > Loading help index... >> Sending to web browser... >> file: /usr/local/racket-5.1.1/share/racket/doc/reference/begin.html >> anchor: (form._((quote._~23~25kernel)._begin)) >> Starting Firefox... >> > >> >> real 0m2.622s >> user 0m2.240s >> sys 0m0.124s >> ~ time echo "(begin (help and) (help or))" | racket >> Welcome to Racket v5.1.1. >> > Loading help index... >> Sending to web browser... >> file: /usr/local/racket-5.1.1/share/racket/doc/reference/if.html >> anchor: (form._((lib._racket/private/letstx-scheme..rkt)._and)) >> Starting Firefox... >> Sending to web browser... >> file: /usr/local/racket-5.1.1/share/racket/doc/reference/if.html >> anchor: (form._((lib._racket/private/letstx-scheme..rkt)._or)) >> Starting Firefox... >> > >> >> real 0m2.858s >> user 0m2.216s >> sys 0m0.116s >> ~ ---- END ---- >> > _________________________________________________ > For list-related administrative tasks: > http://lists.racket-lang.org/listinfo/users > _________________________________________________ For list-related administrative tasks: http://lists.racket-lang.org/listinfo/users
