Re: Dramatic upgrade (was active URLs in Gnus)

[Tim McNamara <timmcn@bitstream.net>]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@elta.co.il> writes:

> > Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help
> > From: Tim McNamara <timmcn@bitstream.net>
> > Date: 08 Nov 2003 14:22:06 -0600
> > 
> > Long term users may not quite recall the sense of amazement that
> > one gets after changing from standard-issue GUI word processors
> > and such to something with the power that Emacs has.  Yikes!
> 
> The fact that the look has changed so much doesn't mean that the
> power went away.  In fact, quite the contrary is true.

Indeed, and no implication that it had.  My point was comparing the
power and configurability of Emacs to, say, AppleWorks or Microsoft
Word, two programs most Mac and Windows users are familiar with.  

Most Mac/Windows people think those are powerful programs, but
compared to Emacs, they are relatively simplistic.  Easier to use,
perhaps, but the tradeoff is that they don't do nearly as much.  On
top of that, the only configurability offered by programs like
AppleWorks or Word is how many toolbars are displayed on the
screen. With Emacs, you can configure just about anything you want.
Just try to run your coffeemaker with Word!

The change in the look and feel of Emacs is quite dramatic, but seems
to have done nothing to lessen the application and may make it more
appealing to a wider audience, which would be a good thing.  I'm
really impressed with the improvements in version 21.2.1, and will
keep my eyes peeled for 21.3.