From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Alan Mackenzie Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: What's your favourite *under_publicized* editing feature ofEmacs? Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:54:35 +0000 (UTC) Organization: muc.de e.V. Message-ID: References: <842d10e8-4efb-447a-b863-09d81105d7a1@a8g2000pri.googlegroups.com> <878vx5mih4.fsf@gmail.com> <35d84967-16f9-4eb5-9988-6d7edcf69ded@o21g2000prn.googlegroups.com> <918e573a-edf9-4e93-8c10-3bda3e0b9d86@j35g2000prb.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1298662876 16560 80.91.229.12 (25 Feb 2011 19:41:16 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:41:16 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Feb 25 20:41:12 2011 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 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Pt3XI-00007y-2J for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 25 Feb 2011 20:41:11 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:55125 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Pt3XB-0001lI-Pi for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:41:01 -0500 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!news-transit.tcx.org.uk!news2.arglkargh.de!noris.net!news.internetdienste.de!news.tu-darmstadt.de!news.muc.de!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help,comp.emacs,comp.lang.lisp Original-Lines: 55 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: marvin.muc.de Original-X-Trace: colin2.muc.de 1298660075 18105 2001:608:1000::2 (25 Feb 2011 18:54:35 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: news-admin@muc.de Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:54:35 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: tin/1.6.2-20030910 ("Pabbay") (UNIX) (FreeBSD/4.11-RELEASE (i386)) Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:185319 comp.emacs:101129 comp.lang.lisp:299938 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:79474 Archived-At: Hi, Rusi, In comp.emacs rusi wrote: > On Feb 25, 12:16?pm, Alan Mackenzie wrote: >> For what it's worth, it's not personal. ?A giant fireball blows up >> when _anybody_ suggests UI changes in Emacs. ?The UI is an important >> part of what Emacs is, so it's bound to give rise to discussion when >> anybody wants to change it. > Hi Alan. > I remember you suggesting some time an idea that you called > 'emacsicality' -- basically a grain of customizability larger than > individual key/function binding or even major mode. [Subsequently I > tried to look it up but my google-fu failed me] > Do you remember what this suggestion was? I don't remember using "emacsicality" (but it's the sort of "word" I would use). An idea I once had was "Emacs personalities" - there'd be classic Emacs, CUA Emacs, possibly Ergo Emacs each callable from the command line as its own command. So you might start the editor with the command % cua-emacs . The commands would all be aliases (or the W32 equivalent, whatever that is) of the plain emacs command. It would be implemented by a "personality" configuration file, loaded before site-start.el. The idea would be to allow newbies, who might otherwise be overwhelmed by configuration, to get a taste of the variety possible under Emacs. I think the idea came up when the making of transient-mark-mode on by default was being discussed on the Emacs development list. That discussion was more like a supernova than a fireball. ;-) > In any case do you realize that this statement of yours suggests that > *fact* of emacs encrustation is opposed to the *philosophy* of infinite > customizability? :-). I don't really think so. More precisely, discussions about UI are nearly always about the _defaults_, and the wisdom, or otherwise, of changing them. Pretty much any new UI feature is welcome, provided it is an option which is disabled by default. The stability of the default features doesn't in any way contradict the philosophy of infinite customisability. My view is that the defaults should remain very stable indeed, (but not totally frozen). At the same time I have an extensive .emacs. > Rusi -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).