From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Rupert Swarbrick Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Beginning Hobbyist Programmer Question Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:47:57 -0600 Message-ID: References: <44129c70-807a-4ef0-bc4f-e299caf5e334@k39g2000hsf.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1200613246 20086 80.91.229.12 (17 Jan 2008 23:40:46 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:40:46 +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 Jan 18 00:41:04 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 1JFeM3-0003ne-Qe for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:41:04 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1JFeLe-0008Jo-W5 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 17 Jan 2008 18:40:39 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews.google.com!news1.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local01.nntp.dca.giganews.com!news.giganews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:47:57 -0600 Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help User-Agent: Pan/0.132 (Waxed in Black) Original-Lines: 43 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com Original-X-Trace: sv3-v6UglsDwAb7c/NAUqOVyt9wru6knYXKGINw/qRPLnav1c3pwgVdSCFvNr+lZm0pYqtojtfXr3nDmhpE!gYFwiiikcMxPoMAr7Qj8NZYhVCndrhQOiaTVaOAL4MsD77gHBh/O1Y11ts70uuATI/8VQFw8 Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@giganews.com X-DMCA-Notifications: http://www.giganews.com/info/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.37 Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:155383 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:50787 Archived-At: On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:04:46 -0800, signups17 wrote: > Can anyone provide a cogent explanation for why I should take the time > to climb that learning curve? What are the benefits, as you see them? > > Also, assuming I'm convinced, can you point me in the direction of a > good tutorial? > > Thanks in advance. Hi, I'm not sure if there's an official FAQ for this group, but this sort of question comes up *a lot*. My comments: 1) emacs is fun to use (this _really_ is the most important bit in my opinion, and I've never encountered it in any other editor) 2) emacs is rather ludicrously customizable. You can write bits of elisp code to change pretty much any part of its behaviour. Although usually someone's done it in advance. 3) More generically, a powerful editor like emacs will allow you to avoid retyping/copying/pasting so much, since its replacing functions, macros and much more will allow you to rename the 70 variables you needed to add a dollar to in 5 seconds, without developing RSI. Now, the previous bit was my personal opinion. About tutorials, presumably you mean an emacs tutorial (after all this is g.e.h), so: 1) Open up emacs and type C-h t (that is Ctrl-h followed by t) and read. 2) When you've finished reading that, there are numerous tutorials on the internet - you could always start at www.emacswiki.org Other general comments I might make: 1) "why I should take the time to"... isn't a great way to get slightly hide-bound and clannish devotees of a text editor like me in a mood to be helpful. 2) In general, specific questions are much more likely to get good answers in a newsgroup. Looking quickly, I'd say that 9/10 of the first page of hits in a google search for "emacs tutorial" returns something useful. Maybe it would be worth trying that? Rupert