Re: gathering data on how people use Emacs

[Mike Mattie <codermattie@gmail.com>]

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On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:28:58 +0000 (UTC)
"Robert J. Chassell" <bob@rattlesnake.com> wrote:

>     Here are some basic questions I thought of ...
> 
>     use of mouse ? 0-4
> 
> That is a bad question since there are times with mouse control of the
> cursor when a sighted person should use it and other times not -- for
> example, it makes sense when moving to a different and distant part of
> the buffer that is visible on the screen.  
> 
> (When moving forward a character or word, it makes sense to invoke the
> commands `forward-char' and `forward-word' with `C-f' and `M-f'
> respectively.  You waste more of your life, that is to say, are less
> efficent, if you move your hands to use either arrow keys or the
> menu.)
> 
> Permanently and situationally blind people should not use a mouse; for
> example, few people want other drivers to take their eyes off the road
> to look at a mouse cursor.
> 
>     Most useful Modes ?
> 
> Another bad question, since modes should be used when appropriate.
> Thus, when using Mail mode you should not be programming Emacs Lisp.
> (You can use the *scratch* buffer for that.)
> 
> There are other poor questions in that list.  I would not use it.
> 

Maybe you understood the purpose of the questions, but maybe you didn't. The idea of the questions
is to figure out how people are using Emacs. Personally I don't use Emacs while driving, but if
someone wanted to add that as a rationale for mouse = 0 ....

Some people even use Emacs to respond to a survey question list with tutorials :)

I would like to know what pieces of 3rd party elisp are most commonly used, the degree to which it is
used in practice, etc. The experience stuff is obvious. The mouse thing is important for how people
use Emacs.

Modes indicate applications: what people use Emacs for.

could you suggest some better/fairer questions then ?

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