Re: Issues with emacs

[PJ Weisberg <pj@irregularexpressions.net>]

On Tue, Jun 26, 2012 at 12:49 PM, Ludwig, Mark <ludwig.mark@siemens.com> wrote:
>> From: notbob
>> Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 2:28 PM
>> To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
>> Subject: Re: Issues with emacs
>>
>> I realize emacs would be much more useful if I was a programmer,
>> particularly a lisp programmer, but I'm not.
>
> This summarizes the split among the Emacs user community that I see in this discussion thread.  Those of us who are programmer types are probably a lot happier with Emacs as it is (and as it has been since its start many decades ago) than those who aren't programmer types.  Partly it's mindset, but also gets to depth of knowledge about how to use the tool -- and how to change what it does/how it works.

http://notinventedhe.re/on/2010-1-18
http://notinventedhe.re/on/2010-1-19
http://notinventedhe.re/on/2010-1-20
http://notinventedhe.re/on/2010-1-28

Someone in this thread mentioned the M-< and M-> keys to go to the
beginning and end of the buffer.  I never knew about those, but I
wrote my own command bound to C-e that goes to the end of the line
when invoked once, then to the end of the buffer if invoked twice in a
row*.  And I was very happy with the result.  I use IDEs that provide
more functionality, but I'm always annoyed when I want to redefine a
command and I can't.  I understand that this is very atypical of
today's computer user, but I still have difficulty putting myself into
the mindset of someone who isn't even interested in learning how to
modify a program's behavior.

*The C-a version might need to be tapped three times to go to the
beginning of the buffer, because it makes a stop at the first
non-whitespace character on the line with the first tap.

> Regarding bloat, an analogy: if all you ever need is one specific knife blade, a Swiss Army Knife will seem to have a lot of bloat.

http://www.swisstechtools.com/proddetail.aspx?pid=5

It's about the size of a small knife, but it's also a screwdriver and
a bottle opener and fits nicely on my key chain (a bit bigger than my
house key and much smaller than my car key).

My point is that you can have lots of features and as long as they
stay hidden and don't take up much space when you're not using them,
they cost nothing.  I've never used the bottle opener, but I have no
desire to get rid of it, and maybe some day I'll need to open a
bottle.  I've never used Gnus, but it's never gotten in my way either.