Re: emacs Info's Next node name much more obvious than Current

[Juri Linkov]

Dan Jacobson <jidanni@jidanni.org> writes:
> J> Right.  This is quite confusing. So, instead of the current
> J> header line and node header:
>
> J> Next: uniq invocation,  Up: Operating on sorted files
> J> File: coreutils.info,  Node: sort invocation
>
> which one sees only in the standalone info reader, and only at the top
> of a page.
>
> Anyway, I'm talking about what one sees at the top of the screen, when
> not at the top of a page, and in emacs:
> Next: uniq invocation,  Up: Operating on sorted files

In Emacs terminology, the line at the top of a window is "header line",
and the line at the top of an Info node buffer is "node header".

> J> it's better to hide the node header completely and show the
> J> following header line:
>
> J> (coreutils)sort invocation  Next: uniq invocation,  Up: Operating on 
> sorted files
>
> I see, adding "(coreutils)sort invocation" to the front of the
> line. Sounds good, and there should be enough room too.

However, in some Info nodes the long node header might not fit on
the header line.  One solution is to truncate the long node name
and display it in the header line partially with an ellipsis, e.g.:

sort invoc...  Next: uniq invocation,  Up: Operating on sorted files

>>> P.S. I wonder if there is any one stroke equivalent of "s <return>"
>
> J> In the latest patch for info.el I already proposed to add `M-s' keybinding:
> J>   (define-key Info-mode-map "\M-s" 'Info-search-next)
>
> Well for we who have ESC s welded into our heads due to being born
> before the ALT button, there is no gain.

In most GNU programs the next search command is bound to `n' key,
but in Info this key is already occupied by `Info-next' command.
One alternative is to bind it to `N' key, but usually this key is used
to repeat a search backwards.  Then another possibility is to bind it
to `S' key, which was suggested for `Info-search-case-sensitively'.
Since `Info-search-case-sensitively' is quite rarely used command,
its suggested keybinding `S' could be rebound to `Info-search-next'.

-- 
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/