May 13, 2020, 06:53 by stefankangas@gmail.com: > Richard Stallman writes: > >> The question is, is it worth spending a few paragraphs on those points: >> >> > You are reading about GNU Emacs, the GNU incarnation of the advanced, >> > self-documenting, customizable, extensible editor Emacs. >> >> When I wrote the first Emacs in 1976, these were exciting new advances. >> Most users had never imagined such features in an editor. >> >> Maybe today every programmer has seen such features elsewhere, and >> responds to that statement with, "ho hum." If so, maybe we should >> delete those paragraphs. >> > > I do think most of that introduction comes off as somewhat uninspired > and mundane if you don't know that backstory, such as: > > you can rebind the basic cursor motion commands (up, down, left and > right) to any keys on the keyboard that you find comfortable > > While some parts are more exciting: > > New commands are simply programs written in the Lisp language, which are > run by Emacs’s own Lisp interpreter. Existing commands can even be > redefined in the middle of an editing session, without having to restart > Emacs. > > I think a rewrite would be in order. But it's hard to write such a text > well. > > Best regards, > Stefan Kangas > How's this for a start? + Welcome to GNU Emacs! + + An Emacs, short for "Editor MACroS", is a kind of text editor built + from the idea that each key calls a tiny program (or macro). This idea + proves powerful in practice, enabling far more than simple insertion + and deletion of characters.  With it, you can operate on words or + lines, sentences or paragraphs, even whole pages.  You can navigate + within or between documents, automate tasks, and control subprocesses; + all with the press of a key!  GNU Emacs is the GNU project's + incarnation of the Emacs idea. + + GNU Emacs is built for introspection and extensibility. + + "Introspection" means GNU Emacs has self-knowledge.  Every aspect of + the system is documented and, because of the Emacs idea, that + information is easy to access.  The documentation may be general, like + this introduction.  It may be instructive, like the tutorials that + are included.  The documentation even reaches down to the source code + itself!  All of this is right at your fingertips.  See Help. + + "Extensibility" means behavior can be altered and improved.  Users can + customize their environment, from keyboard shortcuts to color themes + and most everything in-between.  See Customization.  The extensibility + goes beyond simple customization: new commands can be created and + applied in real-time.  New commands can be bundled in packages and + shared with the diverse Emacs community. Most of the commands in Emacs + are written in Lisp, with a few exceptions in C.  See Emacs Lisp + Intro(eintr) if you want to learn Emacs Lisp programming. + + GNU Emacs is used by authors and researchers, as well as programmers. + It has seen active development for more than 30 years; it is a + heritage as much as a community project.  We love GNU Emacs because we + feel that no other editing environment rewards sustained user + investment quite like it.  We hope that will be your experience, too. A few thoughts: - The introduction in Emacs 26.3 is 306 words.  This is also 306 words.  I propose any rewrite should also be ~306 words. - Extensible is more specific than customizable; if you're extensible, you're necessarily customizable, right? - As brought up in the "GNU Emacs Raison d'etre" thread, it appears "We love GNU Emacs because we feel that no other editing environment rewards sustained user investment quite like it."  I buried this in the last paragraph because it flowed.  It's an audacious claim; one I think GNU Emacs upholds and a standard I think the community may implicitly support.  If so, it might be helpful to make it explicit.  Maybe that sentiment should be front and center? - Aside from memory, these were my sources: https://web.archive.org/web/20000819071104/http://www.multicians.org:80/mepap.html#seciii https://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~monnier/hopl-4-emacs-lisp.pdf - Real-time editor is used differently here than it appears to have meant in 1976.  I have used it here as shorthand for "without having to restart Emacs".