Re: Could Emacs Have a Set-up Wizard?

[Joost Kremers <joostkremers@fastmail.fm>]

On Fri, Sep 03 2021, Simon Pugnet wrote:
>> Thanks.  Unfortunately, the repository you link in the above blog post
>> now gives 404.  Could you provide a working link?
> That's strange, it works fine for me. Here's the link just in case
> there's an issue with my blog: https://github.com/polaris64/emacs_wizard

Seems like a bug in Firefox... The href attribute of that link has the value
"https://github.com/polaris64/emacs%5Fwizard", i.e., with `%5F` instead of the
underscore. For some reason, Firefox's doesn't handle that correctly. In
Chromium it works OK.

>> This is orthogonal to the discussion about profiles, but I agree that
>> it's a good idea.

I also think it's a good idea, but I don't think it's entirely orthogonal to the
idea of profiles. I don't really see how profiles would make it easier for new
users to start using Emacs. A wizard, on the other hand, seems to me to be much
better suited for that purpose. (If done right, of course.)

I suspect profiles will end up adding an additional layer to the configuration.
Put too many options into a profile and they'll just make Emacs' configuration
more opaque, not more transparent. A new user won't have the faintest idea what
choosing a certain profile entails and will either just go with the default or
choose whatever is commonly suggested on the web.

A wizard, on the other hand, presents a new user with a couple of choices, each
of which can be explained on the spot and the necessary change to the init file
made visible. Add a comment to each change with the same explanation that
appears in the wizard and the new user can easily see how to undo the change if
they end up not liking it.

The wizard could have several screens, each with related questions. (A screen
about appearance comes to mind, for example: which font to use, light or dark
colour scheme, etc.)

I don't think there's a real need for an `inhibit-wizard` option, BTW. The
information on the startup screen is mainly intended for new users anyway, so I
don't see a reason why this particular link would have to be singled out.
Experienced users can disable the entire startup screen if they like, but if
they don't they probably won't mind that there is a link to the wizard.

In fact, I would even suggest having the wizard run automatically if no init
file is found (with a button to quit the wizard, of course).


-- 
Joost Kremers
Life has its moments