From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Greg Novak Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Is Emacs becoming Word? Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 10:05:31 -0800 Message-ID: <20050325180531.GB16586@dionysus.ucolick.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1111774240 3110 80.91.229.2 (25 Mar 2005 18:10:40 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 18:10:40 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Mar 25 19:10:40 2005 Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DEtGT-0001g2-Ik for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 25 Mar 2005 19:10:33 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DEtW0-000825-0s for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 25 Mar 2005 13:26:36 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DEtTs-0007VM-2M for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 25 Mar 2005 13:24:24 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1DEtTd-0007Nd-AP for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 25 Mar 2005 13:24:10 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DEtTd-0007NQ-0R for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 25 Mar 2005 13:24:09 -0500 Original-Received: from [128.114.22.17] (helo=dionysus.ucolick.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (TLSv1:DES-CBC3-SHA:168) (Exim 4.34) id 1DEtBe-0000KC-KI for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 25 Mar 2005 13:05:34 -0500 Original-Received: from dionysus.ucolick.org (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by dionysus.ucolick.org (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id j2PI5W1B016989 for ; Fri, 25 Mar 2005 10:05:32 -0800 Original-Received: (from novak@localhost) by dionysus.ucolick.org (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id j2PI5V01016988 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 25 Mar 2005 10:05:32 -0800 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org X-MailScanner-To: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:25146 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:25146 As a longtime emacs user, I would like to register a complaint about the direction of Emacs. This is probably a cry in the wilderness, but here goes: Starting with Emacs21, the program has been creeping toward becoming a WYSIWYG editor, instead of sticking to its roots as a _TEXT_ editor. Some of these features are cool and useful: Eg, I use the ability to display PNG files in a buffer to look at previews of math I've typeset with Latex in the same buffer as the Latex source. Cool, and useful. While I'm not against implementing these wacky new feature, I request that they remain _off by default_. Today when I was editing source code and tried to type pi/2 in a buffer, Emacs replaced it with some special character that appeared as "1/2" as a single character. Needless to say, this is not what I wanted and I find it quite offensive that this is happening while editing source code. The other day I was editing Lisp code and found that instead of the usual paren highlighting, Emacs was highlighting the entire enclosed expression. This is nice, and I can see how some people would find it useful, but I'm used to the usual, subtle, paren highlighting. Therefore it seemed like my code had just gotten back from Las Vegas. Again, I would have preferred "off by default." I've had a long, sometimes rocky, but mostly loving relationship with Emacs. I find these developments troubling. Ok, that's all. Thanks for reading. Greg