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

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@is.elta.co.il>]

On 23 Apr 2002, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

> >>>>> "Kai" == Kai Großjohann <Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE> writes:
> 
>     Kai> I think Eli is sympathizing with Terje.  Does "refuse"
>     Kai> perhaps convey a stronger meaning to a native English speaker
>     Kai> than I thought at first?
> 
> Hm.  That hadn't occurred to me.  "Refuse to learn" in my dialect is
> quite a strong condemnation

I used ``refuse to learn'' because Terje literally said so in his message.  
Since it was (a kind of) a quote, I didn't consider it rude or offensive.
It wasn't a condemnation.

> My apologies, Eli, if I've gotten the connotations you intend quite
> opposite.

No sweat, misunderstandings happen all the time.

> Be that as it may, Eli is clearly arguing that the benefits to
> learning more about Emacs IHHO greatly outweigh the barriers, enough
> so that he's willing to contest Terje's (thought-out) opinion.

Well, yes and no.  Terje seemmed to say that he didn't want to read the 
manual, period.  Not even a single section, not even when in bad need of 
some specific information.  That sounds extreme to me: if there's a way 
of getting quickly to the necessary info, why should someone refuse to do 
that on purpose?

> Furthermore, Eli implies that the cost of reducing the barriers is
> quite high (elsewhere in the thread).

I guess this depends on your definition of ``quite high''.  In general, 
work on documentation requires a large effort, even just to keep the 
docs up-to-date.  It might, for example, tie up one or two dedicated 
volunteers full time.  Significant improvements in the documentation 
system of the type suggested in this thread will probably need more 
effort, IMO.

But that doesn't mean I object to such changes, just that I think people 
should be aware of the pitfals.