From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Rusi Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Do we want more choice? (was Bookmark the end of file?) Date: Sun, 12 Apr 2015 20:28:19 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <39b824d1-e8d2-4bf7-a983-c6cefff83dad@googlegroups.com> References: <87vbh8hlns.fsf@wmi.amu.edu.pl> <1b751175-4544-44e7-bbcd-d5a01bf92624@default> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1428895819 12846 80.91.229.3 (13 Apr 2015 03:30:19 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2015 03:30:19 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Apr 13 05:30:19 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1YhV4j-0006Dt-QB for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 13 Apr 2015 05:30:17 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:46931 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1YhV4i-0007um-U9 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 12 Apr 2015 23:30:16 -0400 X-Received: by 10.236.222.103 with SMTP id s97mr18023856yhp.19.1428895699796; Sun, 12 Apr 2015 20:28:19 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 10.50.143.43 with SMTP id sb11mr153338igb.6.1428895699770; Sun, 12 Apr 2015 20:28:19 -0700 (PDT) Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!j5no1152781qga.1!news-out.google.com!n7ni6193igk.0!nntp.google.com!l13no4598549iga.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help In-Reply-To: Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=59.88.164.77; posting-account=mBpa7woAAAAGLEWUUKpmbxm-Quu5D8ui Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 59.88.164.77 User-Agent: G2/1.0 Injection-Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2015 03:28:19 +0000 Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:211393 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:103675 Archived-At: On Monday, April 13, 2015 at 3:05:07 AM UTC+5:30, Drew Adams wrote: > > > Even if you were right that one use case is more common, why > > > wouldn't we want to let users control the behavior, instead of > > > deciding it for them at coding time? > > > > Because offering more choices doesn't always help the user. > > No, of course not. But neither does offering fewer choices. There is a general realization nowadays, that everything being equal, less choice is likely better than more choice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice In the case of emacs that gets a hefty multiplier. eg. To set up thunderbird one needs to point it to the right source and maybe a couple more settings To set up gnus one has to read a 500 page manual of choices!! Do you not think that corresponds to the number of thunderbird to gnus users? At a more coarse-grained level: When I was scouting around for something like org/planner I asked here, I got a lot of lengthy and diplomatic answers. Wasted a couple of months deciding. Now after some years of using org, I can give a 1-line answer that would have been way more helpful to me then: "Planner core-devs have switched to using org themselves" In short planner vs org is a bogus choice tl;dr If I have any choice in the matter, please take away the spurious choices