From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Kastrup Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: guided tour suggestions Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:25:38 +0200 Message-ID: <86wsxowf31.fsf@lola.quinscape.zz> References: <87645ai4cl.fsf@phil.mit.edu> <85d4zi6jdo.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> <874pksef39.fsf@phil.mit.edu> <86tzssy27o.fsf@lola.quinscape.zz> <18051.34134.815718.363379@gargle.gargle.HOWL> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1183026350 29579 80.91.229.12 (28 Jun 2007 10:25:50 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 10:25:50 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Phil Sung , emacs-devel@gnu.org To: David House Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Jun 28 12:25:48 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1I3rC8-0005Am-8T for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:25:48 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1I3rC7-0007Q3-Jk for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 28 Jun 2007 06:25:47 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I3rC2-0007Ok-Bg for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 28 Jun 2007 06:25:42 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1I3rC0-0007Nw-IY for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 28 Jun 2007 06:25:41 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1I3rC0-0007Nl-9U for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 28 Jun 2007 06:25:40 -0400 Original-Received: from pc3.berlin.powerweb.de ([62.67.228.11]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1I3rBz-00013L-BF for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 28 Jun 2007 06:25:39 -0400 Original-Received: from quinscape.de (dslnet.212-29-44.ip210.dokom.de [212.29.44.210] (may be forged)) by pc3.berlin.powerweb.de (8.9.3p3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id MAA04822 for ; Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:25:35 +0200 X-Delivered-To: Original-Received: (qmail 26531 invoked from network); 28 Jun 2007 10:25:38 -0000 Original-Received: from unknown (HELO lola.quinscape.zz) ([10.0.3.43]) (envelope-sender ) by ns.quinscape.de (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for ; 28 Jun 2007 10:25:38 -0000 Original-Received: by lola.quinscape.zz (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 392C18F832; Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:25:38 +0200 (CEST) In-Reply-To: <18051.34134.815718.363379@gargle.gargle.HOWL> (David House's message of "Thu\, 28 Jun 2007 10\:54\:30 +0100") User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/23.0.51 (gnu/linux) X-detected-kernel: Linux 2.4-2.6 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:73990 Archived-At: David House writes: > Perhaps we could have a little section in the tour showing off how > customisable Emacs is. We could say: > > If you want a more bare-bones Emacs, a good start might be to turn > off some of the more prominent GUI features. > > [Screenshot showing Custom buffer with settings to turn off > scrollbar, menus and toolbar, in an Emacs without those features > activated.] Personally, I find this irrelevant for a tour. A single sentence "All of the graphical and other features can be customized and also turned off if desired" is sufficient. If we really _must_ show anything in that respect, a customize buffer is not really convincing. Instead, the Options/Show/Hide menu would be more appropriate. > Every single time a different colour or font is used, you can > customise which one to use: > > [Screenshot showing an Emacs with a white-on-black colour scheme > and a non-default font.] It is actually not much of a selling point: most people just assume that they can configure stuff like that. > These are just the GUI customisations. Here's a selection of the > other things you can change: > > * Every single key binding in every single mode can be remapped, including > mouse sequences. > * You can redefine any function or command by writing Emacs Lisp. > [... a few more things here] > > Because all of these options can be overwhelming, Emacs provides a powerful > configuration interface, M-x custom: > > [Screenshot of the top Custom group.] > > http://emacswiki.org also contains a veritable library of common and > not-so-common customisations. > > Or something of the sort. I think this is an important part of Emacs we should > try to convey. Maybe. We should not overdo this aspect. After all, one _can_ work reasonably well with the default settings. Customizing Emacs is something for which the desire will only come with some time of usage. -- David Kastrup