Re: Emacs: Problems of the Scratch Buffer

[ken <gebser@mousecar.com>]

On 04/24/2012 07:35 AM Richard Riley wrote:
> rusi<rustompmody@gmail.com>  writes:
>
>> I'll try and restate what Xah is saying in less Xah-ish language.
>>
>> Emacs comes from a time when anyone who used a computer knew (about)
>> programming.
>> Today everyone uses a computer; so the programmers are the freaks.
>>
>> The scratch buffer is meaningful/useful/beautiful for those who can
>> understand what it signifies that they can (re)program their editor.
>>
>> It is a stupid and meaningless irritation to those not so endowed.
>>
>
> Even speaking as a programmer I have to agree. I am surprised anyone
> disagrees. Anyone clued in enough to emacs to know what *Scratch* is for
> can create their own easily enough from their .emacs.

I still recall from decades ago my first experiences with emacs.  Yes, 
the *scratch* buffer was in those first few months a bit of a mystery, 
but certainly in no way "a stupid and meaningless irritation".

What's much more of an irritation is this continual urge to dumb down 
software or make it more like an MS product-- oftentimes one and the 
same goal.  This more often than not leads to the elimination of 
features and functionality which seasoned users (and, No, not in every 
case programmers) are accustomed to.  If a person is irritated by the 
extra features and functionality, she has plenty of options to deal with 
them: learn how to turn them off, learn how to use them, learn how to 
deal with the fact that she doesn't understand everything in the 
software within the first week of using it, or switch to some other 
software which is less challenging and so less "irritating".

One option that newbies don't get-- and I'm speaking especially to those 
with an inflated sense of their own wisdom and opinions-- is to decide 
for everyone what features and functionality the software should and 
shouldn't have... and even less to then expect expect everyone else to 
make the efforts to adjust to their naive views and ridiculously low 
irritation thresholds.