Re: Failing to see the allure of Emacs

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

"akaiser@visi.com" <akaiser@visi.com> writes:

> Up to date?
>
>     http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/elisp.html
>     Updated: $Date: 2007/06/10 19:32:20 $ $Author: cyd $

Uh, that's the time stamp of the download page, not the manual.  If you
actually bothered following a link to the manual, you'd have found

    This Info file contains edition 3.0 of the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference
    Manual, corresponding to GNU Emacs version 23.1.

    This is edition 3.0 of the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual,
    corresponding to Emacs version 23.1.

    Copyright © 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999,
    2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Free
    Software Foundation, Inc.

So the manual you complain about is the manual of the latest released
version, updated in 2009, when this version was released.

The process was very time consuming and involved every manual page being
checked for wording and accuracy by at least two proof readers.
Checking and updating the manual was one of the main factors holding up
the release of Emacs 23.1.

If you can pinpoint any particular part of the manual that would not be
up to date or not well-crossreferenced or incomplete, go ahead.

But bashing it vaguely without bothering to look at it, on the
assumption that it might hit the right nerve if you do it hard enough in
its general direction, is not really appropriate given the
circumstances.

-- 
David Kastrup