* bug#26024: Help with download...
2017-03-09 5:09 ` Glenn Morris
@ 2017-03-09 6:00 ` Christopher Smith
2017-03-09 14:37 ` Drew Adams
2017-03-09 15:19 ` Phillip Lord
2021-09-25 18:32 ` Stefan Kangas
2 siblings, 1 reply; 9+ messages in thread
From: Christopher Smith @ 2017-03-09 6:00 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Glenn Morris; +Cc: 26024, Phillip Lord
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Yeah Mr. Morris, you're onto something there. I'm a sophomore physics
student just looking around the web for useful tools and Quora.com lead me
to emacs. I honestly have no idea what it is though and my programming
skills end at hello world. Us windows users are definitely used to just
going url => downloads => windows => for latest version click here! Thank
you all so much though for the quick responses!
On Thu, Mar 9, 2017 at 12:09 AM, Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> wrote:
>
> FWIW I think the point here is that "here's the ftp server, you figure
> out which file you need" is now archaic. The new thing is A Big
> Button that you press that defaults to the "right" file for you, and a
> small "other versions" link. See eg firefox.com.
>
> Also, one normally skips to the end to get the latest version, but on
> ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows, "emacs-25.1-2" sorts before "emacs-25.1",
> which doesn't help.
>
> Perhaps MS Windows users are additionally confused to not get an .exe
> file that they Just Click to start installing. There's a 200 line README
> file that explains what to do, but no-one reads the README. :)
>
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^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread
* bug#26024: Help with download...
2017-03-09 6:00 ` Christopher Smith
@ 2017-03-09 14:37 ` Drew Adams
0 siblings, 0 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: Drew Adams @ 2017-03-09 14:37 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Christopher Smith, Glenn Morris; +Cc: 26024, Phillip Lord
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I think this might also be relevant:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2017-03/msg00084.html
At least if a README is present someone might think to look at it. If none is present then it's a guessing game. And even with the README, as the message above indicates, the zip-file naming convention is not obvious.
From: Christopher Smith [mailto:cmsmith193@gmail.com]
Yeah Mr. Morris, you're onto something there. I'm a sophomore physics student just looking around the web for useful tools and Quora.com lead me to emacs. I honestly have no idea what it is though and my programming skills end at hello world. Us windows users are definitely used to just going url => downloads => windows => for latest version click here! Thank you all so much though for the quick responses!
On Thu, Mar 9, 2017 at 12:09 AM, Glenn Morris <HYPERLINK "mailto:rgm@gnu.org" \nrgm@gnu.org> wrote:
FWIW I think the point here is that "here's the ftp server, you figure
out which file you need" is now archaic. The new thing is A Big
Button that you press that defaults to the "right" file for you, and a
small "other versions" link. See eg HYPERLINK "http://firefox.com" \nfirefox.com.
Also, one normally skips to the end to get the latest version, but on
HYPERLINK "http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows" \nftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows, "emacs-25.1-2" sorts before "emacs-25.1",
which doesn't help.
Perhaps MS Windows users are additionally confused to not get an .exe
file that they Just Click to start installing. There's a 200 line README
file that explains what to do, but no-one reads the README. :)
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^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread
* bug#26024: Help with download...
2017-03-09 5:09 ` Glenn Morris
2017-03-09 6:00 ` Christopher Smith
@ 2017-03-09 15:19 ` Phillip Lord
2021-09-25 18:32 ` Stefan Kangas
2 siblings, 0 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: Phillip Lord @ 2017-03-09 15:19 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Glenn Morris; +Cc: Christopher Smith, 26024
Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> writes:
> FWIW I think the point here is that "here's the ftp server, you figure
> out which file you need" is now archaic. The new thing is A Big
> Button that you press that defaults to the "right" file for you, and a
> small "other versions" link. See eg firefox.com.
>
> Also, one normally skips to the end to get the latest version, but on
> ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows, "emacs-25.1-2" sorts before "emacs-25.1",
> which doesn't help.
>
> Perhaps MS Windows users are additionally confused to not get an .exe
> file that they Just Click to start installing. There's a 200 line README
> file that explains what to do, but no-one reads the README. :)
All valid points. I'm not a fan of the windows distribution mechanism,
and think it is too complicated.
Phil
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread
* bug#26024: Help with download...
2017-03-09 5:09 ` Glenn Morris
2017-03-09 6:00 ` Christopher Smith
2017-03-09 15:19 ` Phillip Lord
@ 2021-09-25 18:32 ` Stefan Kangas
2 siblings, 0 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: Stefan Kangas @ 2021-09-25 18:32 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Glenn Morris; +Cc: phillip.lord, 26024, Christopher Smith
Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org> writes:
> FWIW I think the point here is that "here's the ftp server, you figure
> out which file you need" is now archaic. The new thing is A Big
> Button that you press that defaults to the "right" file for you, and a
> small "other versions" link. See eg firefox.com.
>
> Also, one normally skips to the end to get the latest version, but on
> ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows, "emacs-25.1-2" sorts before "emacs-25.1",
> which doesn't help.
>
> Perhaps MS Windows users are additionally confused to not get an .exe
> file that they Just Click to start installing. There's a 200 line README
> file that explains what to do, but no-one reads the README. :)
It seems like there are some basic instructions in place here now:
https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/download.html#nonfree
But perhaps the Windows link should simply point to the latest available
zip file, with a link to the FTP server saying "you can find old
versions here". Someone would need to be in charge of updating that
link when a new Windows version is uploaded.
Presumably the best candidate would be Philipp, who is in charge of
releasing Emacs for Windows. So I guess this comes down to what Philipp
thinks about this, and if updating such a link is something he is
willing to take on.
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 9+ messages in thread