Re: emacs for everything?

[Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>]

Floyd L. Davidson <floyd@barrow.com> wrote on Thu, 18 Nov 2004 15:48:07 -0900:
> Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de> wrote:

>>> I would like to know how you use your fingers and brain to remember
>>> the _current_ time on a clock that you do not display?  (As just one
>>> very trivial example of how limited your described environment is in
>>> a real world.)

>>I don't - I just look up at the device hanging on the wall, or glance
>>at

> You missed the point, again Alan.  As I noted, that is a trivial
> example.  It demonstrates the point, but is not meant to flag a
> significant usage.  It shows that there are applications which present
> data that cannot be remembered simply because the data changes (or the
> data set is too large to be remembered, or too detailed, or whatever).

It doesn't show anything of the kind.  Applications which use a lot of
data belong in their own screen, and that is how I use them.

> For that application to be useful on a computer, as opposed having to
> hang it on the wall ....

Having the time displayed on a computer isn't useful to me.

> In addition to a clock on my computer screen, I also have two
> other programs displaying information that is dynamically
> updated.  Having them available via keyboard commands is
> certainly possible, but the point was that such a mechanism
> reduces productivity.

Is this other information useful?  What is it?  The FSF's current share
price, the proportion of your screen currently covered by windows, the
air temperature in Moscow, or what?

> Indeed, the entire point of my comments has been that what you are
> describing is *not* a very productive arrangement.

<sigh>  I thought we'd dealt with that point.  My setup is productive for
me, whilst your setup is, presumably, productive for you.

> Whether you are satisfied with a non-productive work environment is
> beyond the scope of my interest, or the topic of this newsgroup, though
> I will say that hopefully your attitude relates only to your personal
> work, because an employer should probably terminate you for cause under
> those circumstances.

LOL!  Is your employer aware that his employee is a clock-watcher?

>>the one strapped to my left wrist.  If, for any reason, I wanted to
>>know my computer's idea of the time, I'd type in "date" and press the
>>carriage return key.  And if I really, really, really badly wanted it
>>continuously displayed on my console, I'd get Emacs to display it on
>>the mode-line.  How to do this is described in the Emacs manual on the
>>page "Optional Mode Line", if you're interested.  I don't, though.

> You can trust that I'm probably far more familiar with displaying data
> on the modeline that you are.

I doubt that.

> However, the mode line is only so wide and so high, and can't display
> very much.  Something trivial like the date and time it can do quite
> well.  But it can't show me much about what is on this or that web page
> which I might be using to research something I'm writing...

Right.  Now we're coming to the way you use a computer.  This likely has
a lot to do with why you have such a complicated way of using it.

>>Questions:  Do you have the time displayed continuously on your screen?
>>If so, why?  Did you chose to have it there, or did your window manager
>>put it there by default, as it were.  What do you get out of it?

> I wrote the program that displays the time on my screen.

Do you get out much?

> I also have a very much customized modeline for my emacs, which shows
> the current date and time in a way that is distinctly different from
> the default.

Do you get out much?

> What I get out of it is the increased productivity of having a known to
> be accurate time standard (wall clocks here are not accurate), and
> (this is the important part, so listen up) I can observe the time
> without having to interrupt whatever I am typing.

Now you're missing the point.  How on earth does having the time
displayed increase your productivity?  Do you have to write the time into
your documents a lot, thus making it useful to be able to copy it
directly from your screen?  Or is it a kind of background comfort, a kind
of soothing certainty, a bit like some people play music through
headphones as they work?  How would your work (or even your play) suffer
if there wasn't a clock visible on the screen?  What difference would it
make to your productivity if you just used the clock on the wall, and it
was 5 seconds out?  Or even 5 minutes?  I'm genuinely interested.

I don't have a clock on my screen, and I don't need one.

> Floyd L. Davidson

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Munich, Germany)
Email: aacm@muuc.dee; to decode, wherever there is a repeated letter
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