From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Chiron Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Emacs: Problems of the Scratch Buffer Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2012 12:43:45 GMT Organization: TeraNews.com Message-ID: <5Yxkr.15011$bU5.6213@newsfe04.iad> References: <1bqkr.13803$mL3.9455@newsfe23.iad> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1335012318 28419 80.91.229.3 (21 Apr 2012 12:45:18 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2012 12:45:18 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Apr 21 14:45:17 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 1SLZgh-0000hH-Lh for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 21 Apr 2012 14:45:15 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:37275 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1SLZgg-00088A-Tg for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 21 Apr 2012 08:45:14 -0400 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!postnews.google.com!news1.google.com!npeer01.iad.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!post01.iad.highwinds-media.com!newsfe04.iad.POSTED!7ed62f90!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help User-Agent: Pan/0.133 (House of Butterflies) Original-Lines: 47 Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@teranews.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2012 12:43:45 UTC X-Received-Bytes: 3184 Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:192135 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:84550 Archived-At: 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? > [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