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

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@xemacs.org>]

>>>>> "Michael" == Michael Toomim <toomim@cs.berkeley.edu> writes:

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

No, it's not.  That's part of the point, but Ben enunciated the other
part (on xemacs-design, very early on)---helping Emacs to assimilate
more of those who could enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship with
Emacs.  To me, that's the important point ("here, little boy, wouldn't
you like a nice grape-flavor isearch?")  I grant that I'm probably in
a minority here, but please recognize my point of view.

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

I think a lot of it would be easier to add to other editors.  Assuming
they're open source, of course.

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

Besides the developer recruitment issue, many "modern UI concepts"
don't deserve that condescending epithet at all---they really are
useful!  We want them in our favorite editor.


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