From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Xah Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: basic question: going back to dired Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:57:51 -0700 (PDT) Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: <9bc17528-8ea9-49f7-8e9d-07f5ede91415@p31g2000prf.googlegroups.com> References: <66d0c5e3-95d3-4c9b-a602-273375d6cf1f@j22g2000hsf.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1217500902 14196 80.91.229.12 (31 Jul 2008 10:41:42 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:41:42 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Jul 31 12:42:31 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1KOVc6-0000G7-R3 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:42:31 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:59085 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KOVbC-0002Dr-Ck for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 31 Jul 2008 06:41:34 -0400 Original-Path: news.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews.google.com!p31g2000prf.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 145 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.6.97.120 Original-X-Trace: posting.google.com 1217498271 21799 127.0.0.1 (31 Jul 2008 09:57:51 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:57:51 +0000 (UTC) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: p31g2000prf.googlegroups.com; posting-host=24.6.97.120; posting-account=bRPKjQoAAACxZsR8_VPXCX27T2YcsyMA User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10_4_11; en) AppleWebKit/525.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Safari/525.22, gzip(gfe), gzip(gfe) Original-Xref: news.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:160731 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 Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:56080 Archived-At: On Jul 22, 1:23 am, Bastien Guerry wrote: > Xah writes: > > On Jul 21, 11:59 am, Ben Aurel wrote: > >> hi > >> This is my first post here, so I hope this is the right place for aski= ng > >> beginner questions. > > >> My question is simple: When I list some files in dired mode I select o= ne > >> file to edit. Now how can I close this file and go back to dired witho= ut > >> closing emacs? > > > To close the file, use the menu =E2=80=9CFile=E2=80=A3Close=E2=80=9D. E= macs doesn't have a > > keyboard shortcut for this due the fact that emacs has build on the > > 1980's mindset and havn't modernized. > > Or because the concept of "File" is not as central as the concept of > "buffer". It is not a question of being modern or not. In the 1980's > the notion of "file" already existed, and today, projects like OLPC are > putting it aside. > > > (global-set-key (kbd "C-w") 'kill-this-buffer) ; close > > Please don't suggest this. > > `C-w' is for `kill-region' which is fundamental - see the manual > > (info "(emacs)Killing") > > When you're answering questions about Emacs, better to refer to the > manual as much as possible. At least more than your own tutorials, > which can give a biaised view about Emacs. Yes i agree that =C2=ABWhen you're answering questions about Emacs, better to refer to to the manual as much as possible.=C2=BB. However, i'm thinking that some terms used in emacs can use improvement by adapting more modern terms that has for one reason or another become standard among Windows, Mac, Linux, which together accounts for perhaps 99% of computer use. In this thread, i suggest that the term =E2=80=9Cbuffer=E2=80=9D could be c= hanged to =E2=80=9Ctab=E2=80=9D, =E2=80=9Cfile=E2=80=9D, =E2=80=9Cworkspace=E2=80=9D = or something similar, and =E2=80=9Ckeybinding=E2=80=9D can be changed to =E2=80=9Ckeyboard shortcut=E2=80=9D in any context that's not= about assiging a keyboard shortcut. Note that Emacs does officially recognize the term Keyboard Shortcut. The following is a excerpt from glossary section of the official emacs manual from emacs 22: Keyboard Shortcut A keyboard shortcut is a key sequence (q.v.) which invokes a command. What some programs call "assigning a keyboard shortcut," Emacs calls "binding a key sequence." See `binding.' If we adapt the term keyboard shortcut instead of keybinding, it will reduce one learning step. As for =E2=80=9Cassigning a keyboard shortcut=E2= =80=9D, the act is more programing oriented or for advanced users, so i think =E2=80=9Ccreating a keybinding=E2=80=9D or =E2=80=9Cbind a key=E2=80=9D is = still appropriate in emacs and elisp doc. The point is about reducing learning steps by using terms that most people already understand. You may argue that =E2=80=9Ckeybinding=E2=80=9D is more technically correct= . However, terminologies in the industry, may it be science or technology, changes by various forces. Today, =E2=80=9Ckeyboard shortcut=E2=80=9D for g= ood or bad has become the dominant, universally understood term. Adopting it wouldn't hurt emacs's power in anyway, nor i think cause any confusion. About the term =E2=80=9Cbuffer=E2=80=9D, it's more complex to explain. We c= an look at it in another way. Almost all other text editing and IDE apps, they don't use that term. MS VisualStudio, Apple's XCode, BBEdit, Eclipse, TextMate, Microsoft Word... If you look at these software, actually they are buffer too. How can they not be buffers? However, they don't use that term, because the term really is more forceful if you think of the app in terms of implementation. Similar situation occurs in other apps and terms, for example: directory =E2=86=92 folder, file manager =E2=86=92 Desktop, pointing device= =E2=86=92 mouse (what?? a rodent??), left button and right butten =E2=86=92 first button an= d second button, server and client =E2=86=92 client and server in X, Windows = and Frames in most apps and html is Frames and Windows in emacs, copy/cut/ paste is kill-ring-save/kill-region/yank (huh??) etc. If you look at detail, one may argue some are more technically correct. But the point is that for whatever reasons, certain choice of terms becomes the dominant, standard, ones. English itself and its lexicon are largely inconsistent and down right weird. For example, what's the logic of =E2=80=9COK=E2=80=9D? What's the logic in double negati= ves like =E2=80=9CI aint't no gonna do it=E2=80=9D? What's with =E2=80=9Chell no!=E2=80=9D. Som= e of these will get grammarian and pundit's blood flying, but the fact is that for complex social reasons, logic and technical merit is not the main force in how usage changes. As Juanma Barranquero mentioned in this thread, there's descriptive vs perscritive stances that's one of the main controversy among English experts. This issue is so big that entire dictionary are created as a result in this controversy (American Heritage Dict). > > The =E2=80=9Cbuffer=E2=80=9D is term used in the 1980s. Today you > > just call it =E2=80=9CTabs=E2=80=9D or =E2=80=9Cworkspace=E2=80=9D. > > Huh? > > The notion of "buffer" might be emacs specific, but it's not 1980's. > The OP is asking about Emacs, not your own science fiction. I'm somewhat a amature expert in linguistics, in particular lexicon and terminology. I've actually wrote a lot about the issue of terminologies. For some diverson, see: =E2=80=A2 Politics and the English Language http://xahlee.org/p/george_orwell_english.html =E2=80=A2 Math Terminology and Naming of Things http://xahlee.org/cmaci/notation/math_namings.html =E2=80=A2 A Review of 3 Dictionaries http://xahlee.org/Periodic_dosage_dir/bangu/dict_review.html =E2=80=A2 English Vocabulary Compendium http://xahlee.org/PageTwo_dir/Vocabulary_dir/vocabulary.html Xah =E2=88=91 http://xahlee.org/ =E2=98=84