From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.ciao.gmane.io!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: (emacs) Intro [was: Making Emacs popular again with a video] Date: Thu, 28 May 2020 10:08:55 +0300 Message-ID: <83blm8sfi0.fsf@gnu.org> References: <779cc2b0-c546-2a80-afd3-79f10bda1b7e@yandex.ru> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="ciao.gmane.io:159.69.161.202"; logging-data="10475"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" Cc: drew.adams@oracle.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: excalamus@tutanota.com Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Thu May 28 09:09:33 2020 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1jeCfV-0002b6-Gb for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Thu, 28 May 2020 09:09:33 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:38490 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1jeCfU-0007av-Jr for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Thu, 28 May 2020 03:09:32 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:48044) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1jeCf3-0007Bk-Mt for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 28 May 2020 03:09:05 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::e]:56201) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1jeCf3-0002Fu-1I; Thu, 28 May 2020 03:09:05 -0400 Original-Received: from [176.228.60.248] (port=1772 helo=home-c4e4a596f7) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtpsa (TLS1.2:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:256) (Exim 4.82) (envelope-from ) id 1jeCf2-0005Zx-DO; Thu, 28 May 2020 03:09:04 -0400 In-Reply-To: (emacs-devel@gnu.org) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:251540 Archived-At: > Date: Thu, 28 May 2020 03:21:34 +0200 (CEST) > Cc: Drew Adams , Emacs Devel > From: excalamus--- via "Emacs development discussions." > > First, I think it oversells the accessibility of the documentation. > The Emacs documentation is extensive and well written.  However, I > find it quite difficult to navigate to a concept if that thing isn't a > function or variable.  I have been a beginner and asked myself, "What > is a cons cell?".  I found then, as I often still do, that leaving > Emacs (to use a web browser) yields results fast enough to not use > Emacs itself.  Ironically, I most often wind up at the gnu.org html > documentation. Are you aware of the 'i' command in Info, and using it? Because its purpose is precisely to help in the situations like you describe. For example, "what is a cons cell?" is immediately answered by typing this in Info: i cons cell RET or even i cons RET Maybe we should have an interactive command that would let users type the likes of "what is a cons cell" and translate that to the appropriate Info-index command? Because this extremely useful command seems to be unknown and under-used. > I consider being a component of the GNU system a feature and > something integral to distinguishing GNU Emacs from other Emacsen. I think at this time and place, there's only one Emacs. What "non-GNU" Emacsen are there that still need to be kept in mind?