Re: Yet another discussion on improving the first time user experience

["Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com>]

Andreas Röhler <andreas.roehler@online.de> writes:

> Am 22.09.2013 08:18, schrieb JMorte:
>> On reddit:
>>
>> http://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/1mt8a5/
>> nearly_everyone_who_is_new_to_emacs_hates_it/
>>
>>
>>
>
> Thanks.
>
> Below some extracts from this source considered helpful:
>
> I found my way to Emacs after having spent some time with Sublime Text
> 2. It took me a good bit of perseverance and several sallies at Emacs
> before I was finally able to find my footing. I should note that this
> difficulty was in spite of my already having a basic familiarity with
> Scheme (enough to make sense of simple init file hackery) and already
> being someone who spends countless hours seeking out and implementing
> tiny customizations (e.g., Stylish, Pentadactyle, Quicksilver,
> KeyRemap4MakBook––caps lock to ctrl! right shift to forward delete!
> space+j,k,l,i to arrows!––and a few other utilities of that sort). Of
> course, my fiddling is small-time dabbling compared to proper
> optimizers, but the fact that an interested, reasonably capable person
> such as myself was put off of Emacs 4 or 5 times before finally
> finding my groove should count as evidence for your premise.
>
> [ ... ]
>
> The most formidable barrier I encountered when trying to pick up Emacs
> was simply the keyboard navigation. I have been cultivating a
> repertoire of key-chording for fifteen years or so, and virtually none
> of my habituated cords translate into the default Emacs bindings. When
> I first opened up the editor and tried to start using it a bit, I felt
> hobbled and constrained. I am 100% sold on the theoretical and
> practical virtues of Emacs, but I think it's a serious flaw that the
> software doesn't lend itself to effective use as a basic text editor
> straight out of the box. Really, why should I have to read a tutorial
> that forces me to use strange and awkward key-bindings just to figure
> out how to move the cursor around the screen effectively and scroll
> the window?! Since Emacs' essential strength lies in its
> extensibility, I think its built-in intro should instead start by
> offering up a menu of common key binding schemas.

That's funny.   I've switched to emacs after having spent a lot of time
with other editors of all kinds, and notably before emacs a long period
with vi, and I had no such problem in starting wiht emacs.

I must be a genius,  or is it really that the level has dropped as much
as it is told to have dropped?

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__
http://www.informatimago.com/