From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Eli Zaretskii" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: The minibuffer vs. Dialog Boxes (Re: Making XEmacs be more up-to-date) Date: Sat, 20 Apr 2002 14:59:29 +0300 Sender: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org Message-ID: References: Reply-To: Eli Zaretskii NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.gmane.org X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1019304742 5736 127.0.0.1 (20 Apr 2002 12:12:22 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 20 Apr 2002 12:12:22 +0000 (UTC) Cc: bradym@balestra.org, xemacs-design@xemacs.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1 (Debian)) id 16ytj4-0001UP-00 for ; Sat, 20 Apr 2002 14:12:22 +0200 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([199.232.76.164]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 16yu2u-00059U-00 for ; Sat, 20 Apr 2002 14:32:52 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=fencepost.gnu.org) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 3.34 #1 (Debian)) id 16ytir-0007y0-00; Sat, 20 Apr 2002 08:12:09 -0400 Original-Received: from heimdall.inter.net.il ([192.114.186.17]) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 3.34 #1 (Debian)) id 16ytgY-0007gh-00 for ; Sat, 20 Apr 2002 08:09:46 -0400 Original-Received: from zaretsky ([80.230.2.40]) by heimdall.inter.net.il (Mirapoint Messaging Server MOS 2.9.3.2) with ESMTP id BIC22074; Sat, 20 Apr 2002 15:09:06 +0300 (IDT) Original-To: link@pobox.com X-Mailer: emacs 21.2.50 (via feedmail 8 I) and Blat ver 1.8.9 In-Reply-To: (message from Terje Bless on Sat, 20 Apr 2002 13:03:10 +0200) Errors-To: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.9 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:2834 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:2834 > From: Terje Bless > Date: Sat, 20 Apr 2002 13:03:10 +0200 > > I've been using XEmacs for programming since the early nineties. I _still_ > have no clue how to switch between buffers from the keyboard! Is this complaint about the documentation or about the functionality? While the docs might have this in some non-evident place (although it isn't in GNU Emacs, and I'd be surprised if it was any different in XEmacs), the functionality is _certainly_ there: type "C-x b" and follow the prompts. > And speaking of which, the thing that confused me most over the years was > the terminology. A "buffer" is a "document" and a "frame" is a "window"? > Why do I have to choose "New Frame" when what I /really/ want is a new > window? And I don't work with "buffers"; I work with "files" or > "documents". "Buffers" are something hardware /has/ or that I implement in > code, it's not something I work with day-to-day. There's a Glossary in the manual to ease the culture shock. I think we should advertise the glossary more, and perhaps make it more accessible by providing special links to it from doc strings etc. I don't think it's reasonable to expect Emacs to change its terminology because most of it predates the one you are accustomed to. For example, Emacs was talking about windows when glass teletype displays were the only ones in existence. As for buffers, I disagree that it's unused in the context used by Emacs. I've seen several editors that do the same.