From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Ag Ibragimov Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Some ideas with Emacs Date: Fri, 06 Dec 2019 18:13:23 -0800 Message-ID: References: <87fthx9ui8.fsf@mbork.pl> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Injection-Info: blaine.gmane.org; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:195.159.176.226"; logging-data="93421"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@blaine.gmane.org" User-Agent: mu4e 1.2.0; emacs 26.3 Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Marcin Borkowski Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Dec 07 03:14:03 2019 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1idPbf-000OBW-MP for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 07 Dec 2019 03:14:03 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:47110 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1idPbd-0005fz-SZ for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 06 Dec 2019 21:14:01 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:38276) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1idPb6-0005ft-Iy for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 06 Dec 2019 21:13:29 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1idPb5-0001Bd-3H for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 06 Dec 2019 21:13:28 -0500 Original-Received: from mail-pj1-x1043.google.com ([2607:f8b0:4864:20::1043]:45863) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1idPb4-00015L-Oy for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 06 Dec 2019 21:13:26 -0500 Original-Received: by mail-pj1-x1043.google.com with SMTP id r11so3493682pjp.12 for ; Fri, 06 Dec 2019 18:13:26 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20161025; h=sender:references:user-agent:from:to:cc:subject:in-reply-to:date :message-id:mime-version; bh=e5BohuxBtCqxGX+5RhdqdCroRI54P6Y6M5zVzHXE2xQ=; b=UrbSm8Doc2get5vfVg2Mw5U+g0v6BWO9n7z3j4PoDWJQN5Xmvf+NKpxE1Ldm0tFAIo fMueiLnJmiZW+8OpvQ+7DH9c9c+B8IqO1rrAwYUpvgdUpp1JRYfbM8ac7DCD9xRV+Ndc 0eroB+PRhaEEb54tsY65qSWDs57WzpUSwskqMO05zOxEucqxQC1YSDkBLey/i8uJDV9p IcbH0xH8mz7qzguGLNPqnsBwETUvrRGQbt3hwEyYH2LOrZm1g3fRMtd2tHoSKkJx8h3I x+IIJY8GvHtppZ1y8m6XAUgNA9s1bI5ms9mmeRewtKAXdjTjVkWw8V5bSNEj492YCglB ntCg== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:sender:references:user-agent:from:to:cc:subject :in-reply-to:date:message-id:mime-version; bh=e5BohuxBtCqxGX+5RhdqdCroRI54P6Y6M5zVzHXE2xQ=; b=flVqmrJKnOFY4rQL4ASOIPpSPzbNUFfyLTKObpc2OwtyXkeqMnoQSWXd6ovYKHhcd4 jCSdn1FHZ/P5K3g+ykyzQZefD37xNrxAL/yY91hE5IsiqcW0DtQUU8u4MV6Bk/20pVtt YaTJuQs0htsbC5lEMIP1Xk+XTWPoT4vt5jZTLp78j0MfQKCX8NFJ2HjycpIuQ9Grudbk EUJiueLoDWcVKOzF/CHGmKUZADTyOs0hOo0dWobF2K2bxS7HxklCXQWFTW4s5/fTVjrk Se9Q81po3gFt4sD2ip7MD4lc6/fAqEqm73LLrrAnCW7yNDY70KR34smf0sRgupw2jvhk zLrw== X-Gm-Message-State: APjAAAXZGA4q6JzuwEpL0xcbL5ol/soF4D/vRtozInfB0oi7Kd3O3PUn aQEI1w+TRY3S4pSFvA29GFZNsMEyr7M= X-Google-Smtp-Source: APXvYqyYtTgPKRPnUfrc2aMJr7mm/l8Uoff/4uON07cYVk0qhZrYW5VkK6v356n64z4ots+57g72dw== X-Received: by 2002:a17:902:8f81:: with SMTP id z1mr1484628plo.230.1575684804534; Fri, 06 Dec 2019 18:13:24 -0800 (PST) Original-Received: from L-SFO-181227-01 (c-73-170-229-122.hsd1.ca.comcast.net. [73.170.229.122]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id y76sm8378325pfc.87.2019.12.06.18.13.23 (version=TLS1_2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305 bits=256/256); Fri, 06 Dec 2019 18:13:23 -0800 (PST) In-reply-to: <87fthx9ui8.fsf@mbork.pl> X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 2607:f8b0:4864:20::1043 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.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:243204 Archived-At: On Fri 06 Dec 2019 at 10:30, Marcin Borkowski wrote: > On 2019-12-03, at 07:07, Ag Ibragimov wrote: > >> Ooohweee, I've lost myself in the weeds of this discussion thread. It seems writing a book about Emacs Lisp is an arduous task (no shit), writing a comprehensive manual is not easy either. >> >> So I thought: what if we start a repository, make a pitch through social platforms, get people interested, and start collecting various elisp recipes. Then after a while, maybe we could form a curated list. After a few, maybe several months, we gather enough material to make a book out of that? >> >> "Emacs Lisp Cookbook" or something? > > No. > > You may indeed prepare a "cookbook", or a wiki this way - but not > a _book_. A "book" (as opposed to a wiki, a _cookbook_ or a manual) is > something that _tells a story_. > > Best, I agree with that. However, I think "Elisp recipes" or "Elisp cookbook" is exactly what we need and what's missing. You see, Emacs Lisp usually is not learned traditional way, you don't sit down with a book that slowly explains concepts from the elementary to more advanced topics. Also people don't do emacs-lisp "katas" or "koans". Usually one gets into emacs-lisp when the need arises for solving a problem. It's not that difficult to find help these days, people are always happy to help you, we have r/emacs, mailing lists, emacs.stackexchange, various Gitter, Slack and IRC channels, etc. But sometimes you don't even know you had a problem, until someone shows you a solution to it. I think that kind of book, collective community effort would be awesome to have. But your point about a book that tells a story is also very valid. It would be absolutely amazing to have a book written by a single person or small group of co-authors, something titled like "Joy of Emacs" ("Joy of GNU/Emacs" if you're so pedantic) where it also describes philosophy of the language, historical context, contemplates about the future of the language, etc.