Re: Emacs Newbie Info Pages

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Summer Emacs <summeremacs@summerstar.me>
> Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2024 16:12:17 +0200
> Cc: rms@gnu.org,
>  suhailsingh247@gmail.com,
>  corwin@bru.st,
>  emacs-devel@gnu.org
> 
>  1) My proposal is for new people to have a landing set of pages to click through, explaining things
>  in a clear and easy way for them to understand without the instant introduction of concepts which
>  are alien to them. I think the help files are a great thing, but they are overwhelming for new
>  people. I know this because I’ve shown it to people in my circles who don’t know much of anything
>  about how to use a computer, but still use applications such as Word or Pages to type up things
>  for work/classes. They couldn’t understand the first thing about the help pages.
> 
>  I think Richard asked about the difference between what you propose
>  and the existing Emacs tutorial (which can be read by typing "C-h t").
>  The tutorial is not what you call "help files", and is written in a
>  different style and with different goals in mind.
> 
>  Or are you saying that the tutorial is also overwhelming, in
>  particular due to introducing too many alien concepts?  If so, that
>  might be worth a separate discussion, because the tutorial is not
>  supposed to be hard to read and understand.
> 
> I did mention the tutorial but I said I think it’s fantastic. I was speaking about the other help files in general.
> Such as clicking on the “Emacs guided tour” - it’s very non-newbie friendly. It’s a great resource but I think we
> need something better for brand new users who don’t have a coding background.

OK, but then Richard's question still stands, and it would be good to
hear your view on the difference between what you propose and the
tutorial.  Because I could think about a few follow-up questions, such
as:

  . can we extend the tutorial with the information you would like to
    have in the document you propose?
  . maybe make what you propose to be "tutorial, part2"?
  . or how about a tutorial whose audience is non-programmers?

etc.