Re: Some developement questions

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: hw <hw@adminart.net>
> Cc: spacibba@aol.com,  emacs-devel@gnu.org,  rms@gnu.org,  phillip.lord@russet.org.uk
> Date: Sun, 09 Sep 2018 01:23:53 +0200
> 
> > The Emacs tutorial already mentions the arrow keys, before it teaches
> > the more ergonomic cursor motion keys.
> 
> My point is not which particular keys to use but that the tutorial
> doesn't fly because it makes false assumptions ---
> 
> in this case about the efficiency with which certain keys can be pressed
> which largely depends on
> 
> + the users and their skill-level in 10-finger typing,
> 
> + the equipment in use and
> 
> + the difficulty of un-learning the usage of arrow keys which might have
>   already been practised to a rather high and extremely efficient
>   skill-level over decades and is still needed everywhere else

Yes, the tutorial makes a point of catering also for people who want
or can overcome these obstacles.  I see nothing wrong with that: if
you are one of those who can't, just ignore the part about ergonomic
cursor motion keys.

> --- which lead the tutorial to lengthly go into explanations about
> irrelevant key bindings rather than about relevant ones which prevents
> it from picking up beginners where they think they are so that
> confidence can be instilled in them that they can learn Emacs, and trust
> that Emacs isn't difficult to use at all.

Are we talking about the same tutorial?  Here's the actual text:

  * BASIC CURSOR CONTROL
  ----------------------

  Moving from screenful to screenful is useful, but how do you
  move to a specific place within the text on the screen?

  There are several ways you can do this.  You can use the arrow keys,
  but it's more efficient to keep your hands in the standard position
  and use the commands C-p, C-b, C-f, and C-n. [...]