Quick help when pressing '?' in an agenda view?

Quick help when pressing '?' in an agenda view?

[Nathaniel W Griswold]

I noticed that org-agenda-mode stands out in that '?' is not bound to open some kind of help by default. Org agenda is unique in this, it is the first out of many views i have used that did not have '?' bound to open some kind of help. Seems to be convention in pretty much anything builtin to emacs or added by third party that takes over a buffer and interacts with the user. Some examples of builtin are dired, list-buffers, ibuffer, list-bookmarks.

'?' is currently default `org-agenda-show-the-flagging-note`, i haven't used that quite yet.

There hasn't been much discussion on the list about this, There was brief discussion on the list about 'h' here: https://orgmode.org/list/87v9b6qn23.fsf@gmail.com/. Maybe most people don't really care about this. Do other people ever use '?' or was that just me because i came from the vim world? It was something that stood out to me when i first started using org-mode, so i thought i would present it to the list as feedback data.

I didn't realize for a while that "C-h m" opens describe-mode by default, and describe-mode is kinda what i wanted for my problems. I had been opening the org info manual, taking a couple steps to navigate to 'Agenda Commands', and referencing that. I then bookmarked it because i was doing it so much. Maybe i was being stupid but i was new to stuff and i think the '?' is intended for people who are getting started and it would have helped me out there.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

Thank you, everyone. Great work on the software.

Nate

Re: Quick help when pressing '?' in an agenda view?

[Jean Louis]

* Nathaniel W Griswold <nate@manicmind.earth> [2021-05-24 15:08]:
> I noticed that org-agenda-mode stands out in that '?' is not bound
> to open some kind of help by default. Org agenda is unique in this,
> it is the first out of many views i have used that did not have '?'
> bound to open some kind of help. Seems to be convention in pretty
> much anything builtin to emacs or added by third party that takes
> over a buffer and interacts with the user. Some examples of builtin
> are dired, list-buffers, ibuffer, list-bookmarks.

You are right, that screen, but I find the Org export screen similar,
is such static menu that just expects keybindings and nothing else.

It is also in its meaning misrepresented as it is not just "agenda",
the menu serves to search all of the Org files by any queries, not
just for queries representing online planning.

It gives difficulties to inspect itself by using standard Emacs
keybindings like C-h k

It would be good that Org agenda menu is displayed in Org buffer, but
it is not...

Example display:


(define-derived-mode rcd-org-agenda-mode org-mode "RCD Org Agenda Mode" "Org Agenda in Org Mode")

(define-key rcd-org-agenda-mode-map (kbd "q") 'quit-window)
(define-key rcd-org-agenda-mode-map (kbd "m") 'org-tags-view)

(defun rcd-org-agenda ()
  "The RCD Org Agenda"
  (interactive)
  (let ((buffer-name "░▒▓▆▅▃▂▁ ORG AGENDA ▁▂▃▅▆▓▒░"))
    (switch-to-buffer (get-buffer-create buffer-name))
    (setq header-line-format (concat buffer-name " ➜ finish with `q'"))
    (setq org-link-elisp-confirm-function nil) 
    (read-only-mode 0)
    (erase-buffer)
    (insert buffer-name "\n")
    (center-line)
    (rcd-org-agenda-mode)
    (insert "
1. [[elisp:(org-agenda-list)][Org Agenda List]] - Display the agenda for current day or week.

2. [[elisp:(org-todo-list)][Org TODO List]] - Display the global TODO list.

3. [[elisp:(org-todo-list)][Org TODO List]] - Display the global todo list, select only entries
   with a specific TODO keyword (the user gets a prompt).

4. [[elisp:(org-tags-view)][Org Tags View]] - Display headlines with tags matching a condition
   (the user is prompted for the condition).
")
    (goto-char 0)
    (use-local-map rcd-org-agenda-mode-map)))
  

> There hasn't been much discussion on the list about this, There was
> brief discussion on the list about 'h' here:
> https://orgmode.org/list/87v9b6qn23.fsf@gmail.com/. Maybe most
> people don't really care about this. Do other people ever use '?' or
> was that just me because i came from the vim world? It was something
> that stood out to me when i first started using org-mode, so i
> thought i would present it to the list as feedback data.

I do use, that is not consistent with other Emacs key-style menus. The
way to go is to adapt it for yourself. You need not use Org Agenda
menu, it is anyway a menu that tries to do anything and
everything. You may invoke specific function yourself or bind it to a
key, such as `M-x org-agenda-list' 

> I didn't realize for a while that "C-h m" opens describe-mode by
> default, and describe-mode is kinda what i wanted for my problems. I
> had been opening the org info manual, taking a couple steps to
> navigate to 'Agenda Commands', and referencing that. I then
> bookmarked it because i was doing it so much. Maybe i was being
> stupid but i was new to stuff and i think the '?' is intended for
> people who are getting started and it would have helped me out
> there.

You are totally right, I find those design problems too including in
the Org export mode. Each of the modes can be simply constructed as
a non-blocking Org buffer that simply works both with keys and
hyperlinks or mouse.


-- 
Jean

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