This is a great thread -- I'm all about using the manual and help when I can, but I agree, most software that has substantial documentation and is complex has a help structure that is often hard to understand... I bet a lot of people would be grateful if someone would make a "How to use the documentation effectively" page for vim... I'd offer, but I really don't know it yet, but would love to read and learn from it...
Matt On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 5:56 PM, AK <[email protected]> wrote: > On 10/31/2011 05:43 PM, Tony Mechelynck wrote: > >> On 31/10/11 22:03, Benjamin R. Haskell wrote: >> [...] >> >>> The problem is sometimes that it's too complete, and isn't organized by >>> the person who's looking for the information (naturally). Google often >>> cuts through that problem (e.g. by allowing synonyms that the help >>> writer didn't consider, or terms that aren't fully correct). >>> >> [...] >> >> Yes, the Vim help is as complete and as accurate as is humanly possible, >> but sometimes it presents a needle-and-haystack problem. This, however, >> has been greatly alleviated, first (in Vim 6.2 IIRC) by the :helpgrep >> command, and later (Vim 7.x) by the helphelp.txt helpfile, which >> centralizes all "help on searching help" (except the short summary found >> by hitting F1) in a single place. Hence the "must read" in my previous >> post. >> >> And I'll add here: even if you do find something which seems relevant >> about Vim by Googling or by searching the Wikipedia, always check it >> afterwards with the online help, where you may find that your Google >> info is perhaps slightly out-of-date, or omits just the corner case >> which is giving you problems now. >> >> >> Best regards, >> Tony. >> > > > Vim needs a built-in google-like search. Type a few words, get > a list of entries, best matches on top. > > helpgrep is not nearly the same thing - it's linewise, not > topic-wise, and it needs exact match, not synonym/tag match; > and out of the box, it does not easily do AND and OR searches > matching any order of words. > > Basically, the idea is, "Are you already a vim expert and > know exactly the command you need? Boy, do we have a really > great tool to help you find it!" > > Vim has a really great help system.. one of the best help > systems I've used... for ~2-3,000 lines of content. Unfortunately, > it has 130,000 lines of help. > > -ak > > > -- > You received this message from the "vim_use" maillist. > Do not top-post! Type your reply below the text you are replying to. > For more information, visit > http://www.vim.org/maillist.**php<http://www.vim.org/maillist.php> > -- Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise men of old. Seek what they sought. - Matsuo Munefusa (”Basho”) -- You received this message from the "vim_use" maillist. Do not top-post! Type your reply below the text you are replying to. For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php
