From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Eli Zaretskii" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Menu suggestion Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 12:35:59 +0200 Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: <2719-Mon26Apr2004123559+0300-eliz@gnu.org> References: Reply-To: Eli Zaretskii NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1082972344 27226 80.91.224.253 (26 Apr 2004 09:39:04 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 09:39:04 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Mon Apr 26 11:38:53 2004 Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1BI2Zh-0005SU-00 for ; Mon, 26 Apr 2004 11:38:53 +0200 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1BI2Zh-0006J2-00 for ; Mon, 26 Apr 2004 11:38:53 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1BI2YA-00076j-Ri for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Mon, 26 Apr 2004 05:37:18 -0400 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1BI2Y4-00076D-QE for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 26 Apr 2004 05:37:12 -0400 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1BI2XX-0006QN-JG for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 26 Apr 2004 05:37:11 -0400 Original-Received: from [192.114.186.23] (helo=aragorn.inter.net.il) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1BI2XW-0006Nf-KP for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 26 Apr 2004 05:36:38 -0400 Original-Received: from zaretski ([80.230.141.159]) by aragorn.inter.net.il (MOS 3.4.5-GR) with ESMTP id CTK67395; Mon, 26 Apr 2004 12:36:16 +0300 (IDT) Original-To: storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) X-Mailer: emacs 21.3.50 (via feedmail 8 I) and Blat ver 1.8.9 In-reply-to: (storm@cua.dk) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.4 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:22162 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:22162 > From: storm@cua.dk (Kim F. Storm) > Date: 26 Apr 2004 11:56:24 +0200 > > When a new user is trying emacs for the first time, I bet that he > already knows about scrolling using arrow keys, home/end, pgup/pgdn, IIRC, once upon a time, I suggested to say in the tutorial, right at its beginning, that if the reader already knows how to move around, she could skip the first N sections. (We could even make those parts disappear, i.e. not be displayed, if the user doesn't want to read them.) I think Richard agreed, but requested that this be accompanied by an advice to read those sections anyway, since they teach Emacs bindings for cursor motion commands, which in our opinion are handier for fast typists than the arrow keys and their ilk. Given that some of the more boring sections of the tutorial are skipped, we could add to it a few new sections describing features that users generally want but cannot find and/or figure out easily. Unfortunately, I never had time to rework the tutorial along these lines. Perhaps someone would consider doing that now. Alternatively, some kind of ``guided tour'' thru Emacs for beginners (which could use the tutorial as the starting point), would IMHO be a very useful addition to Emacs. Such a document could overcome the greatest disadvantage of the tutorial: that it's a linear document that is quite large, so it's inconvenient to read it in parts.