Re: How to get rid of *GNU Emacs* buffer on start-up?

[tyler <tyler.smith@mail.mcgill.ca>]

Xah Lee <xah@xahlee.org> writes:

> «I think the existance of the lisp scratch buffer is one of the major
> usability problem of emacs that prevents emacs from being widely
> adopted by most text editing audience.»

Ironically, I just used the scratch buffer as the repository for the
text of your previous message. rot13-region doesn't work in the
read-only gnus buffers, so I needed to transfer it to a different
buffer.

I didn't need the scratch buffer to do this, as I could have used a
temporary file (see below). But I think the scratch buffer does serve a
valid purpose that warrants it's inclusion by default. In my opinion the
one design feature that underlies Emacs success is the complete
rejection of the distinction between user and developer. The scratch
buffer is an extension of this mindset. Emacs assumes that everyone who
uses it has a vested interest in understanding, exploring, and tweaking
the code, so it is natural to provide the scratch buffer to enable and
encourage this.

> Emacs does not provide a user level function to create a new buffer.
> It has just New, which actually creates a empty file. Most apps's New
> command does not work like that. They actually just create a new
> buffer, and only when user save it it becomes a file.

You are mistaken. I don't know what 'New' is in Emacs, but find-file,
when asked to find a file which does not already exist, creates a new
buffer that is not associated with a file _unless_ it is saved. I
regularly use this feature to create temporary files, which I may decide
to save or not as I require. One of the advantages of this approach is
that you can choose the mode for the temporary file by giving it an
appropriate extension. If I need a buffer to work out some throw-away R
code, I can open asdf.R, run the code, and delete the buffer.

Cheers,

Tyler

-- 
Making back-ups of your legally-purchased DVDs will be illegal under
Bill C-61. 

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3072/317/