From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Spencer Baugh Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Intermediate tutorial shipped with Emacs Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2015 22:19:41 -0400 Message-ID: <87a8sjcfr6.fsf@earth.catern.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1442639232 13953 80.91.229.3 (19 Sep 2015 05:07:12 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2015 05:07:12 +0000 (UTC) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Sep 19 07:07:05 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1ZdAMa-00010C-6t for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 19 Sep 2015 07:07:04 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:43650 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZdAMZ-0004lS-5b for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 19 Sep 2015 01:07:03 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:42214) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Zd7ku-0007p6-Co for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 18 Sep 2015 22:20:01 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Zd7kp-0005fE-Ek for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 18 Sep 2015 22:20:00 -0400 Original-Received: from catern.com ([104.131.201.120]:55647 helo=mail.catern.com) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Zd7kp-0005e7-B2 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 18 Sep 2015 22:19:55 -0400 Original-Received: from [127.0.0.1] (localhost [127.0.0.1]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.catern.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 17ACB4AD03 for ; Sat, 19 Sep 2015 02:19:48 +0000 (UTC) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 3.x [generic] X-Received-From: 104.131.201.120 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Sat, 19 Sep 2015 01:07:01 -0400 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 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.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:190075 Archived-At: Hi emacs-devel, I think it would be good if Emacs shipped with an intermediate tutorial, covering topics beyond the basic tutorial. Reading the entire manual is great, but wouldn't it be nice if there was a short/medium-length overview of some of the cool features of Emacs? Kind of like http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/tour/ but omitting the introductory material covered by the tutorial, and more up to date. (That page doesn't mention eshell, for example!) There are surely many documents on the web that tour intermediate Emacs features; I've written one myself. But I think it would be better if such a document was part of Emacs, either as part of the manual or otherwise, as easily accessible as the tutorial. Topics-wise, I envision it would briefly cover things like: - keyboard macros - TRAMP - the various ways to get help inside Emacs - narrowing - dired - calc - et cetera The hope would be to give users a taste of some of the more advanced features of Emacs. Then, if they are faced with a situation that one of those features that they read about in the intermediate tutorial would be useful for, they'll search the help system for more information rather than be frustrated. As an example, consider narrowing. If a user didn't already know narrowing existed, they probably wouldn't even bother searching for the feature; it isn't obvious how useful until you know about it. A user without knowledge of narrowing would use other hacks. As I said earlier, I have written such a document in org, because I needed reference material to provide my students when I do Emacs workshops. (It's still mostly a draft, and it's somewhat specific to the workshops, so if you want to see it send me mail.) So, I wanted to see if emacs-devel thought this was a good idea, or a bad idea, or if anyone had any suggestions. I would be happy to adapt the document I've already written if that makes sense. Thanks, Spencer Baugh