[feature request] enable annotating Info manual

[randomwangran]

Dear the maintainers of the package of annotate.el:

Thanks for writing this package, I find it useful when reading
computer programs. It makes my ideas seamlessly intergrated with
the sources very well.

My initial idea was to use this package to annotate the Info
manual. I found that it is very enjoyable to read the Elisp
manual inside the Info mode, so I thougth it would be better if I
could annotate my thoughts directly into the Info manual.

I tweaked some of the functions before Sept. 24. I was able to
achieve the function. Please see the following GIFs. I did not
report to you because I thought my code was not robust.

1. Able to write notes in Info mode:
   
2. Able to write notes in the sub-nodes:
   
3. After reopen Emacs, it can reload all the notes in the Info manual:
   

There are many commits after Sept. 24 and after that my tweaks
were not compatable with your code.

I was wondering that if someone could make a decent pull request
to this package.

Followings are my tweaks, and I hope it can help someone
interested in making it.

Thanks for your effort. Really appreciate it.

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/annotate.el")
(require 'annotate)
(setq annotate-file (expand-file-name "~/Dropbox/myNote/annotations"))


;; for info file

;;;###autoload
(define-minor-mode annotate-mode
  "Toggle Annotate mode."
  :init-value nil
  :lighter " Ann"
  :keymap (make-sparse-keymap)
  :group 'annotate
  :after-hook (if annotate-mode
                  (progn (annotate-initialize) (split-window-below) (delete-other-windows))
                (annotate-shutdown)))

(defun tweak-annotate-load-annotations ()
  "Load all annotations from disk."
  (interactive)
  (let ((annotations (cdr (assoc-string
                           (substring-no-properties (or Info-current-file ""))
                           (annotate-load-annotation-data))))
        (modified-p (buffer-modified-p)))
    ;; remove empty annotations created by earlier bug:
    (setq annotations (cl-remove-if (lambda (ann) (eq (nth 2 ann) nil))
                                    annotations))
    (message "annotate is %s" annotations)
    (when (and (eq nil annotations) annotate-use-messages)
      (message "No annotations found."))
    (when (not (eq nil annotations))
      (save-excursion
        (dolist (annotation annotations)
          (let ((start (nth 0 annotation))
                (end (nth 1 annotation))
                (text (nth 2 annotation)))
            (message "hi")
            (annotate-create-annotation start end text)))))
    (set-buffer-modified-p modified-p)
    (font-lock-fontify-buffer)
    (if annotate-use-messages
        (message "Annotations loaded."))))

(defun annotate-initialize ()
  "Load annotations and set up save and display hooks."
  (tweak-annotate-load-annotations)
  (add-hook 'after-save-hook 'annotate-save-annotations t t)
  (add-hook 'window-configuration-change-hook 'font-lock-fontify-buffer t t)
  (font-lock-add-keywords
   nil '((annotate--font-lock-matcher (2 (annotate--annotation-builder))
                                      (1 (annotate--change-guard))))))

(defun tweak-annotate-save-annotations ()
  "Save all annotations to disk."
  (interactive)
  (let ((file-annotations (annotate-describe-annotations))
        (all-annotations (annotate-load-annotation-data))
        (filename Info-current-file))
    (if (assoc-string filename all-annotations)
        (setcdr (assoc-string filename all-annotations)
                file-annotations)
      (setq all-annotations
            (push (cons filename file-annotations)
                  all-annotations)))
    ;; remove duplicate entries (a user reported seeing them)
    (dolist (entry all-annotations)
      (delete-dups entry))
    ;; skip files with no annotations
    (annotate-dump-annotation-data (cl-remove-if
                                    (lambda (entry)
                                      (eq nil (cdr entry)))
                                    all-annotations))
    (if annotate-use-messages
        (message "Annotations saved."))))

[cage2]

On Tue, Oct 29, 2019 at 08:52:32PM -0700, randomwangran wrote: Dear the maintainers of the package of `annotate.el`:

Hello!

Thanks for writing this package,

I am the comaintainer of annotate.el, thank you for your interest in this package and for your rich and precise feature request!

I find it useful when reading computer programs. It makes my ideas seamlessly intergrated with the sources very well.

yes, this is the same way i use it. And it helps me a lot i would say.

My initial idea was to use this package to annotate the Info manual. I found that it is very engjoyable to read the Elisp manual inside the Info mode, so I thougth it would be better if I could annotate my thoughts directly into the Info manual. I tweaked some of the functions before Sept. 24. I was able to achieve the function. Please see the following GIFs. I did not report to you because I thought my code was not robust.

This is really interesting! Unfortunately as you said (and if i have understood correctly) your modifications can not be integrated as is in the current codebase and moreover there is a pending PR waiting for merge. But i can promise i am going to try to add this feature but i have to say that i can not guarantee i will find a solution in the near future, sorry! :( Please, in the meanwhile, can you give me some hints for the for the variable; `Info-current-file`? This seems to be a good starting point to integrate your ideas in the code. Does this variable comes from `info.el` (i mean the emacs source code)? Bye! C.

[cage2]

Hello to everyone!
@bastibe i have some code that try to deal with this feature, my idea is: i could push this modification on my fork and, with kind collaboration from @randomwangran , we can check if my code meets his request or not. Then, if it does, i can issue pull request. Are you ok if i work on this request? Is this way to work good?

Bye!
C.

[bastibe]

Absolutely! Or just open the pull request and we can collaborate on it in the pull request right away. I'm fine with using a pull request as a discussion platform.

[cage2]

Hi!
I think we (Bastibe and me) added the feature you requested, therefore i am closing this. If you do believe there are still things to do please feel free to reopen this issue!

Bye!
C.