From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: rusi Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Menu-based tutorial? Date: Thu, 17 May 2012 19:04:41 -0700 (PDT) Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: <3a135ebd-39a6-4474-81af-64f7bb6a3eb3@e9g2000pbh.googlegroups.com> References: <586b4b91-ee79-4359-92e0-67fb2c1ad57c@pr7g2000pbb.googlegroups.com> <8d46baf5-4dcc-4bef-8245-a8534aa350c5@googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1337306713 27166 80.91.229.3 (18 May 2012 02:05:13 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 18 May 2012 02:05:13 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri May 18 04:05:12 2012 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1SVCZ6-0007DU-A2 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 18 May 2012 04:05:12 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:54623 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SVCZ5-0005mu-D8 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 17 May 2012 22:05:11 -0400 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!news.glorb.com!news-out.readnews.com!transit3.readnews.com!postnews.google.com!e9g2000pbh.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 27 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 116.74.128.102 Original-X-Trace: posting.google.com 1337306682 8609 127.0.0.1 (18 May 2012 02:04:42 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 18 May 2012 02:04:42 +0000 (UTC) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: e9g2000pbh.googlegroups.com; posting-host=116.74.128.102; posting-account=mBpa7woAAAAGLEWUUKpmbxm-Quu5D8ui User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:10.0.2) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/10.0.2,gzip(gfe) Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:192460 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:84866 Archived-At: On May 18, 6:37=A0am, Karra wrote: > On Thursday, May 17, 2012 1:12:35 PM UTC+5:30, Thien-Thi Nguyen wrote: > > Implicit in menu presentation and interaction is a (usually) > > inscrutable ontology, which personally, i find extremely > > intimidating. > > You mean an incomplete, and often poorly thought through taxonomy? Callin= g it an ontology is bestowing too much prestige, I'd say. Any taxonomy implies an ontology -- implied, unconscious or intentional is another matter. And the atomic building blocks for communicating these are likely to be completely arbitrary. We dont ask questions like: - What in the (shape of character) '2' suggests that it is twice of '1'? - What is the logical progression from 'A' to 'B' to 'C'? These signs are less arbitrary in a pictogramic language like Chinese. And presumably we all found these signs arbitrary at some early age and then we 'grew up' by getting used to such arbitrariness. Likewise the details of the contents and organization of: File Edit View.... Help is likely to be arbitrary, but no more arbitrary than the progression of keys: C-x 1, C-x 2, C-x 3, C-x 4.