From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "David L" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Emacs's popularity (was: Distributed Maintenance for Emacs) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:30:25 -0800 Message-ID: References: <2103fd36-c5cd-4e8d-a74f-34697a369934@a26g2000prf.googlegroups.com> <003101c954de$f95a3000$0200a8c0@us.oracle.com> <87skop8cc7.fsf@iki.fi> <20081215210907.GB3848@groll.co.za> <00aa01c95f00$fc27b830$0200a8c0@us.oracle.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1229618014 19174 80.91.229.12 (18 Dec 2008 16:33:34 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:33:34 +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 Dec 18 17:34:40 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 1LDLpH-0008ET-4L for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:34:15 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:49838 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1LDLo4-00030m-Qx for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:33:00 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1LDLlc-00023I-Ju for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:30:28 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1LDLlb-000230-I9 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:30:27 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=43799 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1LDLlb-00022x-Dw for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:30:27 -0500 Original-Received: from fg-out-1718.google.com ([72.14.220.158]:17759) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1LDLla-0003JS-Qj for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:30:27 -0500 Original-Received: by fg-out-1718.google.com with SMTP id l26so229379fgb.30 for ; Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:30:25 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to :subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type :content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; bh=FB3yeV/Vptabm8rmytgR8dkjyLjzSNt6Xg/PXyTDGps=; b=M7RXvgmQBzTv1lFF5+zxtrakcsWSrLrT/uX9J/lbnFJjt5ar7iAIWnjkYPwENugdfB buDnUTLlXcAQDndP6jNhsl5tistYobM7zSSChbLQWpbQPQ+OkbkhATBuc3/RVhzzOAOp H/v4r60QrK9H3FTLT/W8DQ0sNu6Ymq/LKrXaQ= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version :content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition :references; b=tNHcG+/LcoAQHzkUeaiVqNgnFT/yJeMJ2sGvmFrfXORpijLTDR1opHLSd56htFSG2+ GyS4OUhpQYRDrymKjWRTkUZbuLtceG3MOE/aSOXqSxZvJ2+eRyqW69AgLTgjhsDkaK5f OXYxEQP+IWL7Cvhi8u/4haklbMl6kJmz4e2EA= Original-Received: by 10.86.95.20 with SMTP id s20mr1235040fgb.39.1229617825256; Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:30:25 -0800 (PST) Original-Received: by 10.86.91.1 with HTTP; Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:30:25 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <00aa01c95f00$fc27b830$0200a8c0@us.oracle.com> Content-Disposition: inline X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 2) 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:60799 Archived-At: On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 2:03 PM, Drew Adams wrote: >> Sadly, vim outvotes all flavours of GNU emacs on the above graph when >> added to it (although to be fair, on Debian emacs is not installed by >> default but some flavour of vi is). > > Hm. Dunno why that should make one sad. I would never use vi or vim (unless I > had to), but I don't see why I should be sad or bothered if other people find it > useful. One person likes to live in the forest; another prefers the city; a > third the shore. > > Why the need to make Emacs the most popular? It's good to make Emacs better, but > what's the popularity contest about? Perhaps Americans on average listen to > Britney Spears more than Mozart or Muddy Waters. So what? A tool with a shrinking user base also has a shrinking pool of potential developers that will continue to make it better. Fewer developers to make it better will make it less competitive with other tools causing it to lose more users. And so on. There are also fewer people to file bug reports and help other users with problems. Another reason that is would be nice if it was growing in popularity is to give people like me some ammunition when many people in my company are saying emacs is obsolete and I should start using eclipse. There is something to be said for standardizing tools within a company... I always get frustrated when I sit down with somebody to help them debug something and don't know my way around eclipse and I know they feel the same with emacs. If a company forces developers to use a certain tool or a few more popular tools (which many companies do), it's like people are forced to listen to Britney Spears (to use your analogy).