Re: The minibuffer vs. Dialog Boxes (Re: Making XEmacs be more up-to-date)

[Michael Toomim <toomim@cs.berkeley.edu>]

Hrvoje Niksic wrote:
> I see your point, I really do, but I don't have a good idea how to
> fill this gap.  I think the tools like `M-x edmacro' (have you tried
> it? -- `M-x edit-kbd-macro') are a good first step because they make
> it easy to translate keystrokes and the "editing" stuff you see into
> the Lisp stuff underneath.  Then it's not hard to mess with the Lisp
> stuff without having to have a deep understanding about it.  `M-x
> customize' is another example of the same, but fails to deliver for
> similar reasons -- still too complex and "hard".

Wait.. isn't this the whole point of this thread?  I thought this was about 
figuring out what what could be done to XEmacs to make it more mainstream -- 
to make it usable to those who haven't been assimilated?

In my mind, XEmacs provides a few very cool features that aren't dependent 
upon the lisp extensibility (other than in that they grew out of lisp 
extensions) that would be extremely useful to the mainstream user: i-search, 
program-code auto-indentation, iswitchb, full-featured syntax highlighting, 
etc. as well as more than a few more advanced features that enhance one's 
intimacy with the editor: dynamic abbrevs, structural navigation (C-M-d, 
C-M-b, etc.), and the like.

In my mind, the point behind this "the future of XEmacs" idea is to figure out 
how to generate a version (or dialect) of XEmacs that gives mainstream users 
access to the really cool functionality that XEmacs has to offer.

If we don't think that XEmacs can ever "fill the gap"; that it can ever be 
useful to a user who isn't willing or prepared to go through the hazing 
ritual, then why are we even talking about this at all?