Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucsd!ogccse!schaefer
From: schaefer@ogccse.ogc.edu (Barton E. Schaefer)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.mush
Subject: Re: minor mush enhancements
Message-ID: <5363@ogccse.ogc.edu>
Date: 30 Oct 89 20:19:36 GMT
References: <370@kauai.ACA.MCC.COM> <5334@ogccse.ogc.edu> <372@kauai.ACA.MCC.COM>
Reply-To: schaefer@ogccse.UUCP (Barton E. Schaefer)
Organization: Oregon Graduate Center, Beaverton, OR
Lines: 50

In article <372@kauai.ACA.MCC.COM> duanev@kauai.ACA.MCC.COM (Duane Voth) writes:
} In article <5334@ogccse.ogc.edu>, schaefer@ogccse.ogc.edu (Barton E. Schaefer) writes:
} > In article <370@kauai.ACA.MCC.COM> duanev@kauai.ACA.MCC.COM (Duane Voth) writes:
} 
} Bart, you are still quite sane.

Don't make assertions you may not be able to substantiate. :-)

} This has happened to me too many times [....] can anybody think
} of a way to organize the Mush docs so that related features/variables/
} commands are somehow tied together?

This sort of thing is definitely a problem, and if anybody has any good
solutions we [%] would be glad to hear of them.  A reorganization of the
Mush man page is on the to-do list, but probably won't make it into the
next release.  However, some changes have already been made that should
help remedy this problem:

1)  "Multivalued" variables.  This means variables whose "string" value
    is a space-or-comma-separated list of keywords.  Related concepts
    are thereby grouped under a single name.  For example, the variable
    $quiet has been expanded from a simple boolean to a multivalued
    variable whose keywords designate suppression of messages (startup,
    autosign, fortune) and/or error bells (await, completion, tool). [%%]

2)  Cross-referencing in the on-line help.  Whenever help entries have
    been changed or added, a list of variables related to the command in
    question has been appended to the help paragraph.  This has not yet
    propagated to all the help entries where it would be useful, but it's
    a step in the right direction.
____________

%   I take the liberty of answering for Dan on this one.

%%  Comment for 7.0 alpha testers: the multivalued variable $bell is
    going away; it's functions have been inverted and moved to $quiet.
____________

There are obviously some limitations to both of the above schemes.
Multivalued variables have so far been limited mostly to new features,
because of "backwards compatibility" issues; in the case of $keepsave,
this goes all the way back to UCBmail variables.  Cross-referencing
variables through commands has the drawback of missing the variables
that aren't directly related to any command (though the only one I can
think of at the moment is $newline).
-- 
Bart Schaefer      "A Yellowbeard is never so dangerous as when he's dead."
                                              -- Graham Chapman, 1941-1989
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Internet         schaefer@cse.ogc.edu       (soon to be cse.ogi.edu)