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#+TITLE: Survey — where a curated "?" help menu makes sense
#+AUTHOR: Craig Jennings
#+DATE: 2026-07-10
* What this is
The mechanical half of the "=?= = curated help menu" convention task. It reports,
per mode, whether =?= is free, whether =H= is free, and what the package already
ships. It changes no keybinding and makes no per-mode recommendation, because which
commands belong in a curated menu is a taste call.
The reference implementation is calibredb (=modules/calibredb-epub-config.el:129-131=):
=?= runs =cj/calibredb-menu=, a curated transient of the frequent workflows, and =H=
runs the package's own =calibredb-dispatch=.
* Method
Bindings were read from the live keymaps, not from source, because a package's
=define-key= calls and its =:bind= forms don't always agree with what ends up in the
map.
The probe ran in a throwaway =emacs --batch= with =package-initialize=, not in the
running daemon, for two reasons. Probing =calibredb-search-mode-map= or
=mu4e-headers-mode-map= in the daemon would force-load those packages into a live
session. And a batch Emacs reports the *package's* defaults rather than the defaults
plus Craig's config, which is the question being asked: what does the package ship?
=mu4e= is not an ELPA package. It installs with =mu= into
=/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/mu4e=, so it needed an explicit =load-path= entry.
* The table
=FREE= means the key is unbound in that mode's map.
| Mode | =?= | =H= | Ships a dispatch? |
|---------------+--------------------------------+---------------------------+------------------------|
| calibredb | =cj/calibredb-menu= (curated) | =calibredb-dispatch= | yes, moved to =H= |
|---------------+--------------------------------+---------------------------+------------------------|
| nov | FREE | FREE | no |
|---------------+--------------------------------+---------------------------+------------------------|
| eat | FREE | FREE | no |
|---------------+--------------------------------+---------------------------+------------------------|
| elfeed-search | FREE | FREE | no |
|---------------+--------------------------------+---------------------------+------------------------|
| elfeed-show | FREE | FREE | no |
|---------------+--------------------------------+---------------------------+------------------------|
| dired/dirvish | =dired-summary= | =dired-do-hardlink= | no (summary is a |
| | | | one-line echo) |
|---------------+--------------------------------+---------------------------+------------------------|
| magit-status | =magit-dispatch= | =magit-describe-section= | yes, already on =?= |
|---------------+--------------------------------+---------------------------+------------------------|
| pdf-view | =describe-mode= | =pdf-view-fit-height-...= | no |
|---------------+--------------------------------+---------------------------+------------------------|
| org-agenda | =org-agenda-show-the-flagging- | =org-agenda-holidays= | no |
| | note= | | |
|---------------+--------------------------------+---------------------------+------------------------|
| mu4e-headers | =mu4e-headers-mark-for-unread= | =mu4e-display-manual= | no |
|---------------+--------------------------------+---------------------------+------------------------|
* What the table shows
Four modes have both keys free: nov, eat, elfeed-search, elfeed-show. Nothing has to
be displaced to adopt the convention there. These are the cheap ones.
Three modes bind =?= to something small. =dired-summary= echoes a one-line key
reminder. =pdf-view= sends =?= to =describe-mode=. =org-agenda= puts a
flagging-note command on it. In each case the convention would displace a command of
low value, but it is a displacement and needs a decision.
=mu4e-headers= is the awkward one. Its =?= is =mu4e-headers-mark-for-unread=, a real
editing command in the marking family (=u=, =d=, =!=). Rebinding it would break
muscle memory for an operation that mutates mail state. Its =H= is already
=mu4e-display-manual=.
=magit= is the counterexample worth noting. It already does exactly what the
convention proposes: =?= opens =magit-dispatch=, its own curated transient. The
convention is not new, it is magit's habit, generalized. Magit needs no change.
=dirvish= inherits =dired-mode-map=, so a change there lands on plain dired too.
* Caveats
The probe reads package defaults. Craig's own config may rebind =?= in a mode after
the package loads, and the batch probe would not see it. A grep for =?=-rebinding in
=modules/*.el= found only the calibredb case, so the table should hold, but a mode
whose config binds =?= inside a =:config= block reached by a path the grep missed
would not show up.
=signel= and =pearl= are in the task's candidate list and are absent from the table.
Neither was probeable: they are local checkouts, not ELPA packages, and loading them
in batch pulls in dependencies the probe deliberately avoided.
* The decisions this leaves
For each mode, whether a curated =?= menu is worth its cost, and if so, which
commands go in it. That is the taste call, and the reason this survey stops here.
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