Re: Could Emacs Have a Set-up Wizard?

[Simon Pugnet <simon@polaris64.net>]

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Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> writes:

>> 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.
>
> If we could do it well, that sounds like it could be a good idea.
> Maybe we could let the user choose such a mode of operation
> optionally, while hiding the nitty-gritty details by default.

I think it's important to expose the user to the nitty-gritty to some
extent. I envisage the wizard as being a first step into learning Emacs,
so while it hides the details of how it generates a configuration based
on the user's choices it will show the generated code in the end. It
could display the init.el buffer after the wizard is complete and then
show exactly where this file is saved.

As I think was mentioned in this thread earlier too, adding helpful
comments above each generated section of configuration would be very
important. The goal I think would be to encourage users to fiddle and
experiment, but also to allow them to get started right away without
having to understand things first.

Give someone a configuration and they'll be enlightened for a month,
teach them how to build their own configuration and they'll be
enlightened for life :)

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