Re: New start up splash screen annoyance...

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>     That's why I proposed announcing it with a message or tooltip that
>     persists for a while but does not keep the user from actually working.
>
> I don't think that's sufficient to reliably inform people,
> because it is too indirect.

If "reliably informs" means "make sure from the start that they can't
do anything useful before reading this and/or taking extra action" you
are right.  But that also means that nobody (not just newbies) can
start doing anything useful unobstructedly on a standard Emacs without
customization.

We don't want to have this degree of reliability.  It is bad, not good
for both the image of Emacs and the GNU project.

> Someone suggested popping up two frames.  That seems worth
> considering.
>
>     Anyway, I think we have more to gain from educating the people
>     who stick with Emacs (and thus will at one point of time get to
>     see the splash screen) rather than the people who try it a few
>     times and then give up in disgust.
>
> Exaggerations like this just make me angry at you, which makes me
> less inclined than normally to entertain changes you suggest.

Unfortunately, it isn't an exaggeration.  It is sad that when
everybody tells you the same that you think they must be exaggerating
or lying and that you will punish them by ignoring their input.

I know several vi aficionados who clearly said that they don't use
Emacs since whenever they tried it, it "screwed them over" and thus
they decided "they are just not an Emacs person".  At one time, the
"C-h for help" binding was the ultimate candidate for surprising
annoyance.

We really don't want to feed the prejudices in that manner: we have
come such a long way in the last few years.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum