Helpful
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Helpful is an alternative to the built-in Emacs help that provides much more contextual information.
- Helpful will try really hard to show the source code. It shows the source code for interactively defined functions (unlike the built-in Help) and falls back to the raw sexp if no source is available.
- Helpful will show you where a function is being called.
- Helpful renders docstrings with full cross-references, hiding superfluous punctuation.
- Helpful will show you the properties that have been applied to the current symbol. This provides visibility of features like edebug or byte-code optimisation.
- Helpful provides a separate helpful-command function, for when you just want to view interactive functions.
- Helpful displays any keybindings that apply to interactive functions.
- You can trace, debug (coming soon) or disassemble functions from inside Helpful. This is discoverable and doesn't require memorisation of commands.
| Description | an alternative to the built-in Emacs help that provides much more contextual information. |
|---|---|
| Author | Wilfred |
| Maintainer | Wilfred |
| Source | https://github.com/Wilfred/helpful |
| Part of Emacs | no |
Usage
This package is available in Melpa and Melpa Stable.
If you want to replace the default Emacs help keybindings, you can do so:
;; Note that the built-in `describe-function' includes both functions
;; and macros. `helpful-function' is functions only, so we provide
;; `helpful-callable' as a drop-in replacement.
(global-set-key (kbd "C-h f") #'helpful-callable)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-h v") #'helpful-variable)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-h k") #'helpful-key)