From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Riley Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Emacs's popularity (was: Distributed Maintenance for Emacs) Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:56:36 +0100 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider 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> <87d4fs5shr.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1229431333 24554 80.91.229.12 (16 Dec 2008 12:42:13 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:42:13 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Dec 16 13:43:19 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 1LCZGO-0000EN-TO for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:43:01 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:60536 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1LCZFD-000223-2U for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 16 Dec 2008 07:41:47 -0500 Original-Path: news.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!newsfeed.news2me.com!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!newsfeed00.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!news.k-dsl.de!news.motzarella.org!motzarella.org!usenet238.motzarella.org!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 42 Original-X-Trace: news.eternal-september.org U2FsdGVkX19zi27MdVn3JXSakBsthDIbdRKU5yhqmFvygsPC69PyB/WTTflW2XNpfzX8iSZ+hwEJEqwjXE/aaVAeEV30h+tlqcNhXzugF2avaHBjbJkmjg8wrmKa3hyxV9ormAh0s1Xohr+4+LEFiw== Original-X-Complaints-To: Please send complaints to abuse@motzarella.org with full headers Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:58:26 +0000 (UTC) X-Auth-Sender: U2FsdGVkX18JJiL9VgGhyNqElpg+Vju1SEw5fJYy5VfMKOBqmP3elw== Cancel-Lock: sha1:9i+SVP3982JaD5dX6BBB+9J0gAQ= User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.0.60 (gnu/linux) Original-Xref: news.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:165350 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:60683 Archived-At: Tim X writes: > "Drew Adams" writes: > >>> 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? >> >> On the other hand, info about the relative use of different Emacs versions is >> (mildly) interesting and might be helpful in some ways. >> > > Well said Drew. Agree 100% > > Tim There seems to be a tendency in emacs circles to take any suggestion which might make emacs more popular as some sort of push to make it for thickies or dumb it down. The Britney v Mozart rebuttal is a worn old war horse wheeled out frequently in such arguments :-; Making something more widely used can only benefit the whole community. People did not put man years into it for a small few. People like their work to be used. So personally, I *do* care if I think emacs is losing share. If it is then something is wrong and people should consider ways of addressing it. The "I dont care as it works for me" attitude is somewhat anti the whole Open and Free movement IMO. -- important and urgent problems of the technology of today are no longer the satisfactions of the primary needs or of archetypal wishes, but the reparation of the evils and damages by the technology of yesterday. ~Dennis Gabor, Innovations: Scientific, Technological and Social, 1970