Re: Emacs: Problems of the Scratch Buffer

[Chiron <chiron613.no.spam.@no.spam.please.gmail.com>]

On Sat, 21 Apr 2012 08:16:56 +0000, Joost Kremers wrote:

> but you get extra users for extra users. that's worth something.

I don't see that it's worth anything.  In what way do the maintainers of 
emacs benefit from having more users?

<snip

>> [quoted text muted]
> 
> that's an interesting analogy. the dinosaurs died out because they
> couldn't adapt fast enough to the new environment when it changed
> dramatically. the point is, stuff, whether animals or software or
> anything else, dies out when it doesn't adapt to new circumstances. the
> dinosaurs couldn't help it, but emacs is developed by sentient beings
> that can see the change of times and react, if necessary.
> 
Well, the point I was getting at is that things have a lifetime.  
Everything comes to an end, and that's not a bad thing.  It's just the 
way it is.  There are times to adapt, and there are times to scratch 
something and go on to something new.  Maybe emacs has had its day - and 
if it has, that's fine.

The sentient beings who work on emacs are not interested in making the 
suggested changes, for whatever reason they may have.  Perhaps they can't 
do it; perhaps they're stubborn; perhaps they're simply not interested in 
catering to the passing fads of programming that come and go every year.  
I have no idea.  But if they don't want to do it, they're not going to do 
it, and no amount of saying they "should" do it will help.

> i don't have a strong opinion on what to do with the scratch buffer, i
> have no idea if it is something that holds back people from adopting
> emacs as their editor. but it is worth discussing, i think.

I still don't understand the talk about the *scratch* buffer.  It comes 
up, but it's not the initial frame or buffer I get, and never has been.  
Is there some version of emacs where this happens?  I could see this 
being very confusing, if that were the case.  I still don't know enough 
lisp to do much about the *scratch* buffer.  If that's all I got when I 
started emacs, I'd probably go on to some other editor.  And no one would 
ever miss me...

-- 
I come from a small town whose population never changed.  Each time a 
woman got pregnant, someone left town.
		-- Michael Prichard