Re: Emacs for new users

[Stephen Eilert <spedrosa@gmail.com>]

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On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 1:37 PM, Per Starbäck <per@starback.se> wrote:

> I wrote:
> > But I prefer if they don't have to, since they have lots of other stuff
> to learn as
> > well. Every good step is a good step, even the small ones.
>
> I should add that I love all the care that has been taken in making
> Emacs 23 even more accessible for new users
> than Emacs 22 was. I'm teaching an intro course where we use Emacs
> among other things, and I think if was a big
> change to do this with Emacs 23 this year. Kudos to all involved!
>
> Maybe I should ask my students about what they have found particularly
> confusing. Some things I've noticed
> off the top of my head:
>
> * beeping is often disturbing and unexpected, in particular for
> scrolling past the beginning or end of the
>  buffer with the scroll wheel. (I agree. That's hardly an error.)
>

True. That's why the very first thing I do with any emacs installation is to
silence it. I wouldn't be as bad if the standard desktop sounds were used.

I think this scroll wheel error thing should be removed entirely.


> * the frame/window terminology (of course)
>

Also true.


> * I have a hard time getting them to use *one* emacs instead of
> starting several when they are editing several files.
>

That's probably because their .emacs files are small(if they exist at all).
It takes several seconds for my emacs to start, and that's just not
acceptable to me.

You could try teaching them about emacsclient (and making it the default
associated editor for whatever they are editing).


>  One reason is they want them in different frames. Probably
> find-file-other-frame should be in the menus.
>

This is... suprising. That might be due to the lack of tabs. Even then, I'd
think they'd want different windows, instead of frames.

You might consider providing an standard .emacs file with this.


> * They are interrupting things by doing stuff with the mouse. Like
> clicking somewhere in the middle of a query-replace.
>

That takes time getting used to. Perhaps they don't even understand that the
minibuffer is actually a buffer, and that their movement commands work just
fine. This is not immediately apparent.


--Stephen

programmer, n:
       A red eyed, mumbling mammal capable of conversing with inanimate
monsters.

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