From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Stephen J. Turnbull" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: The minibuffer vs. Dialog Boxes (Re: Making XEmacs be more up-to-date) Date: 21 Apr 2002 23:48:59 +0900 Organization: The XEmacs Project Sender: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org Message-ID: References: <000601c1e8b5$2960f830$947ba8c0@TSUNAMI> NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1019400684 27265 127.0.0.1 (21 Apr 2002 14:51:24 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 21 Apr 2002 14:51:24 +0000 (UTC) Cc: "Kyle Jones" , "Michael Toomim" , "Miles Bader" , "Eli Zaretskii" , , , , Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1 (Debian)) id 16zIgW-00075e-00 for ; Sun, 21 Apr 2002 16:51:24 +0200 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([199.232.76.164]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 16zIgm-0000CU-00 for ; Sun, 21 Apr 2002 16:51:40 +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 16zIgJ-0007OE-00; Sun, 21 Apr 2002 10:51:11 -0400 Original-Received: from tleepslib.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp ([130.158.98.109]) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 3.34 #1 (Debian)) id 16zIez-0007K5-00 for ; Sun, 21 Apr 2002 10:49:49 -0400 Original-Received: from steve by tleepslib.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp with local (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 16zIeD-0002kc-00; Sun, 21 Apr 2002 23:49:01 +0900 Original-To: "Andy Piper" In-Reply-To: <000601c1e8b5$2960f830$947ba8c0@TSUNAMI> Original-Lines: 32 User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) XEmacs/21.4 (Common Lisp) X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA/0.51 (Python 2.1.3 on Linux/i686) 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:2935 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:2935 >>>>> "Andy" == Andy Piper writes: Andy> I think the issue is not so much that Emacs uses weird Andy> terminology but that Emacs uses different terminology to a Andy> hundred other editors. Seems like we're arguing for Andy> Esperanto rather than words that are actually in the Andy> dictionary. >> -----Original Message----- Followed by about 100 lines of uninterrupted quote. Talking about Emacs requires a much bigger vocabulary than talking about text widgets that cause intelligent people to top-post. It's true that we do use words like "file" and "window" differently from other editors, but the distinctions that cause these distinct usages will not go away without drastically changing Emacs, and reducing its capabilities. It's true that many of the "programmer's editors" you advocate that Emacs emulate have specialized capabilities we can dream of having in a year or two at best, but none of them provide the kind of flexibility that Emacs does. Describing that flexibility precisely and accurately does require words that are only found in unabridged dictionaries, or in specialist's jargon glossaries. -- Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp University of Tsukuba Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN Don't ask how you can "do" free software business; ask what your business can "do for" free software.