From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: ams@gnu.org (Alfred M. Szmidt) Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: A proposal for a friendlier Emacs Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2020 05:04:35 -0400 Message-ID: References: <4be18b5f-dc07-2703-a2de-1ed08916ebdf@gmail.com> Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="20517"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Nicola Manca Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Thu Sep 17 11:05:17 2020 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1kIpqv-0005Ft-GK for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Thu, 17 Sep 2020 11:05:17 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:49426 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1kIpqu-00039Q-JA for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Thu, 17 Sep 2020 05:05:16 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:42948) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1kIpqF-0002iK-PJ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 17 Sep 2020 05:04:35 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::e]:33009) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1kIpqF-0002sR-Ft; Thu, 17 Sep 2020 05:04:35 -0400 Original-Received: from ams by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1kIpqF-0007Qq-Ca; Thu, 17 Sep 2020 05:04:35 -0400 In-reply-to: <4be18b5f-dc07-2703-a2de-1ed08916ebdf@gmail.com> (message from Nicola Manca on Thu, 17 Sep 2020 10:50:04 +0200) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:255971 Archived-At: Dear all, following the recent discussions about a startup wizard and modern-mode I try to provide a suggestion. I think a startup wizard balances everything, new users with experience other editors can easily pick what they prefer in this configuration wizard thing. This hasn't the negative notion of "modern", "newbie", etc. What about having a startup screen, opening only if no .emacs or other user configuration file is found just saying (the text is just an example): It shouldn't be super intrusive if there is no .emacs, since it is quite common to fire up Emacs without a .emacs. Welcome! This is the first time you run Emacs, please choose how to proceed: [] Go Vanilla! (standard defaults, no customizations) [] Start Configuration Wizard (set-up your .emacs configuration file interactively) [] Try Emacs in enhanced-mode (run with a predefined configuration showing emacs potential) After this screen, the normal Emacs splash screen could me presented. This mimics what many GNU/Linux distros already do, allowing minimal installation, full-featured installation or Live (no-installation. The idea is that the option number 3 also enables a first-level menu item allowing to select among: Any specific reason why not have those in one of the menu bars by default instead? this would keep the "splash" slightly simpler. How does it sounds? I think this is the most sensible proposal.