Re: Emacs Customization - newbie's question

["Daniel R. Anderson" <dan@mathjunkies.com>]

<snip>
> I would recommend against purchasing this book.  For one, as already
> mentioned, its outdated.  Two, all of the info in it can be found online
> and believe me, there is not alot to this book.  The "Writing GNU Emacs
> Extensions" isnt worth it either.
> 
> http://rgrjr.dyndns.org/emacs/emacs_cheat.html
> 
> Thats a good place to start, check out the emacs wiki too.  The Oreilly
> books are a waste of money and paper IMO
> 
</snip>

1)  Every book ever written about technology is outdated before it gets
off the press due to the fact that the 6+ months between writing and
publication the tech. world changes.  So long as the information works
it's not a problem.  As I said, I only found one difference between the
key bindings -- and even that wasn't much.

2)  Some people like books compared to online documentation.  For one
thing those of us who do not have a latte, twiddler, and cyborg
headset[0] often find the time we are away from computers can be used to
learn about them.  (Taking the train into NYC is a good example).   

3)  It is by no means meant to be an all inclusive reference.  It's
meant to provide an overview with detailed explanations for noobs.  If
you're technically sophisticated and you´ve gotten used to online
documentation it is probably too slow for you.  But, if $7 helps you to
learn better then the online documentation, and that $7 buys an increase
in productivity worth (much) more then $7 to you, it certainly makes
sense to spend it.

0.  A latte is a computer available at thinkgeek.com a little larger
then an oversized CD case.  A twiddler is a one handed keyboard with
integrated mouse (www.handykey.com) and there are lcd goggles available
that allow you to make the i/o interface complete.  They cost upwards of
a couple thousand dollars, although, if I were Donald Trump I wouldn't
hesitate to buy one.

-Dan