Re: Making Emacs more newbie friendly

[PT <mailshield.gg@mailnull.com>]

On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 16:33:37 +0100, David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> wrote:

> PT <mailshield.gg@mailnull.com> writes:
>
>> The newbies I met usually used a "visual" editor before. Like
>> SlickEdit,  Eclipse or Visual Studio.
>
> Strange concept of a "newbie" here.

Of course, I meant an Emacs newbie... One who used other software before,  
but not Emacs.

> So the vetoing power should stay with those that have an interest of
> keeping Emacs as their working editors for decades.  If we can improve
> the first month of a newby without souring the last decade of a
> seasoned user, we will by all means do so.  But bending over backwards
> for the sake of people that are unlikely to stay with Emacs in the
> long run, anyway, is a waste of effort.

The question is: is more people using Emacs a good thing at all? Or is it  
only an additional burden (more clueless people on the help forums, etc.)?

We should answer this question first, because if attracting more users to  
Emacs is not really a priority then this thread is completely pointless.

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