[tex-live] searching help for files w/o documentation

[Manuel Pégourié-Gonnard]

Philip TAYLOR a écrit :
> Maybe even better to enhance TeXdoc to iterate over
> an extended set of extensions, and to report for
> a hypothetical CJKnumb with four candidates :
> 
>     texdoc info: No exact match, trying fuzzy search mode.
>     No documentation found for CJKnumb, trying extended search mode
> 
>     1       f:/TeX/Live/2008/texmf-dist/tex/latex/cjk/cjknumb.cls
>     2       f:/TeX/Live/2008/texmf-dist/tex/latex/cjk/cjknumb.dtx
>     3       f:/TeX/Live/2008/texmf-dist/tex/latex/cjk/cjknumb.sty
>     4       f:/TeX/Live/2008/texmf-dist/tex/latex/cjk/cjknumb.tex
>     Please enter the number of the file to view, anything else to skip:
> 
Hum, what you suggest means not only adding extensions but also looking
outside the doc tree. While I have no technical objection to that, I
doubt it is really texdoc's purpose: I mean, there's "doc" in the name...

I'm aware that some will disagree, but I strongly think source code is
not proper documentation. I also tend to think that people who are able
to learn for reading the source are also able to find it themselves.

By the way, finding the source is a lot easier than finding
documentation: file names are (meant to be) unique in in the runtime
trees, and kpsewhich is the perfect tool to find them. Moreover, you
almost always now the name of the .sty file. When I really want to look
at a source, I have a very simple shell alias that locate it using
kpsewhich and opens it in my favorite editor.

I'm not saying a TeX source explorer wouldn't be useful, esp. if someone
manages to implement features à la ctags, I just don't think it's
texdoc's job.

Manuel.

PS: cc-ing the texdoc list, and encouraging everyone interested to
continue the discussion there, in order to keep the TL-list clean. (No
need to subscribe, of course.)