From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Gregory Heytings via "Emacs development discussions." Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Interactive guide for new users (was: Re: Gather a list of confusions beginner tend to have) Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2020 15:20:18 +0000 Message-ID: References: <875z8ortot.fsf@gkayaalp.com> <83lfhjkq0r.fsf@gnu.org> <8620B5CD-CA92-46BF-80A8-DBE7052F4CA6@gmail.com> <32292E31-1603-4EF9-B772-EBD378C32F76@gmail.com> <83o8mcfjxb.fsf@gnu.org> Reply-To: Gregory Heytings Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=US-ASCII Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="11542"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" User-Agent: Alpine 2.22 (NEB 394 2020-01-19) Cc: casouri@gmail.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Eli Zaretskii Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Fri Sep 11 17:21:48 2020 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1kGkrz-0002pS-FO for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Fri, 11 Sep 2020 17:21:47 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:38702 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1kGkry-0006pU-Gv for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Fri, 11 Sep 2020 11:21:46 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:42782) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1kGkqj-00060I-BB for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 11 Sep 2020 11:20:29 -0400 Original-Received: from mx.sdf.org ([205.166.94.24]:55849) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1kGkqh-0005h0-5l; Fri, 11 Sep 2020 11:20:29 -0400 Original-Received: from sdf.org (IDENT:ghe@faeroes.freeshell.org [205.166.94.9]) by mx.sdf.org (8.15.2/8.14.5) with ESMTPS id 08BFKKSH025594 (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256 bits) verified NO); Fri, 11 Sep 2020 15:20:21 GMT Original-Received: (from ghe@localhost) by sdf.org (8.15.2/8.12.8/Submit) id 08BFKXQq026894; Fri, 11 Sep 2020 15:20:33 GMT In-Reply-To: <83o8mcfjxb.fsf@gnu.org> Received-SPF: pass client-ip=205.166.94.24; envelope-from=ghe@sdf.org; helo=mx.sdf.org X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: First seen = 2020/09/11 09:22:45 X-ACL-Warn: Detected OS = ??? X-Spam_score_int: -18 X-Spam_score: -1.9 X-Spam_bar: - X-Spam_report: (-1.9 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, SPF_HELO_PASS=-0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:255202 Archived-At: >> It should not just be "shorter", it should be *really* short. I've >> just read it again, for a new user it is almost useless. I think the >> following two keybindings would suffice: "C-x 1" and "C-g". And >> perhaps the four following ones to give the new user a sense of what >> using C- and M- is: "M-f and M-b", "C-a and C-e". >> Note that these four keybindings are also on M-left and M-right and >> home and end, which is what a new user would use (and it would work). >> >> I would perhaps also add "M-%", which is very useful and not documented >> in the tutorial. > > But the tutorial is not just about keybindings. It explains a lot of > other turf, mainly the important concepts: buffer, window, mode line, > etc. > A new user does not need to understand those subtleties. He already has an intuitive notion of what a buffer and a window are, which suffices to start using Emacs. It is enough to tell him that the mode-line contains the name of the major mode followed by minor modes, and that he can have a description of those modes and their bindings by pressing "C-h m". BTW, there is another option that I would add in screen 3: tab-line-mode.