Martin Schoenert writes:
[an interesting comparison of emacs info and GAP'S on-line help]

First of all, this comparison and your later comments on how much
you use emacs are bound be an enticement for those GAPers (?) who are
not emacs users to try it out :-)

Let me see what I think I miss from info on GAP. First of all, the
familiar interface. I have learned already an uncountable number (even
though it is finite) of user interfaces on several classes of similar
programs; it is not so difficult to keep them straight as long as they
are used frequently, but it sure is boring. Anyway, GAP's keycodes
aren't even close to the torture of using vi *occasionaly*, something
I have to cope with, so let it be.

On this site, the X interface of GNU Emacs is all souped up with
goodies I have come to get used. Thus, for some stuff, like following
chapters, references and other hypertext links, the mouse comes in
handy. And one can add hyperbole buttons in such a way that an info
file can have attached postscript or dvi files, which would be shown
in the screen adequately.

And then, I can easily pluck pieces of an info file into a buffer (but
this is cheating, since I already said I use a mouse, I can pick up
stuff from an xterm too).

I use EMACS a lot. Actually I probably would be lost without EMACS.I
don't think it would be too difficult to make a TeXinfo manual for GAP,

I am flabbergasted! I thought it would be a HUGE amount of work, given
the size of the GAP manual. Actually, that was the main reason I
never asked for it, until I was prompted by the posting about hypertext.

but we are certainly not considering it in the moment. (I don't miss a

Joachim's last posting surely set the priorities straight. The lack of
an info is at most a very minor deficiency of GAP; surely the team
energies are better spent into improving GAP's mathematical abilities
and computational power.

GAP info-file for EMACS, but then I probably have to use the manual less
often than others ;-).

Saved yourself a backache from carrying a 2 kg GAP manual up and down
:-)

Best regards,

Arnaldo

.................................................................
Arnaldo Mandel                    \    am@ime.usp.br  (1st choice)
Computer Science Dep.              \   amandel@cce.usp.br    (2nd)
Universidade de S\~{a}o Paulo      /   mac@fpspux.fapesp.br
S\~{a}o Paulo - SP - Brazil       /            (if all else fails)