From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: ken Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Emacs: Problems of the Scratch Buffer Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:44:15 -0400 Message-ID: <4F96AE2F.8090405@mousecar.com> References: <1bqkr.13803$mL3.9455@newsfe23.iad> <5Yxkr.15011$bU5.6213@newsfe04.iad> <99231f42-9486-427e-a340-7591223e6c08@u4g2000pbu.googlegroups.com> Reply-To: gebser@mousecar.com NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1335275089 1650 80.91.229.3 (24 Apr 2012 13:44:49 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:44:49 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Apr 24 15:44:46 2012 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 1SMg2w-00045P-Kr for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:44:46 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:53079 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SMg2w-00061E-1j for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:44:46 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:59444) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SMg2g-0005zo-IX for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:44:40 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SMg2X-00045c-KB for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:44:30 -0400 Original-Received: from mout.perfora.net ([74.208.4.194]:65026) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SMg2X-00045M-DX for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:44:21 -0400 Original-Received: from dellap.mousecar.net (dsl093-011-016.cle1.dsl.speakeasy.net [66.93.11.16]) by mrelay.perfora.net (node=mrus2) with ESMTP (Nemesis) id 0LlUqt-1RlxiA14lT-00aoaB; Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:44:18 -0400 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:10.0.3) Gecko/20120314 Thunderbird/10.0.3 In-Reply-To: X-Provags-ID: V02:K0:vg8J67Xf9TWK0PKLJNT96ov30NxbD7I/1TJLohDL/8b JsOqu2tqKtlQW9R7AZk4XTorqxCjIL1AKYr82Lpvq2ODP9UcwO bFQ5C6O7Cqv86i0uqc5ZsGG2Pe8fkdoPl/O7yXHFKj33WhudKA DnaVGjX2J/hAlQr2OyM2bnPkyUVChTU8x/ZEhpq/N7e7fIss6Q 6rXjr4xTxsURTBTjo7OmzDHKO0xMrNQttv9QCppnKJrOBGMiFH /2beOFtOREphHlZQtOLqCy2oOONSu8jcKm6ib5w85YHJXEz520 niOovOW81q+kDQCz4hRFwC9L3LCFu3t8UzavreqPTcFbeeefuJ c3GPqzcH2bSOO3hDnyRvQ6srVwa7AkF62mq6IGIoj X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 74.208.4.194 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:84612 Archived-At: On 04/24/2012 07:35 AM Richard Riley wrote: > rusi 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.