From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Pferor Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Having difficulty turning programmer onto emacs. What to demo? Features? Date: Thu, 20 May 2010 23:38:27 +0200 Organization: Netfront http://www.netfront.net/ Message-ID: <87aaru6yp8.fsf@not-configured.yet> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1291950753 24891 80.91.229.12 (10 Dec 2010 03:12:33 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2010 03:12:33 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Dec 10 04:12:26 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PQtPG-00015r-46 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 10 Dec 2010 04:12:26 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:43974 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PQtPF-0006Aj-GC for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 09 Dec 2010 22:12:25 -0500 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!ucberkeley!newsgate.cuhk.edu.hk!news.netfront.net!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 63 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 87.222.127.47 Original-X-Trace: adenine.netfront.net 1274391539 21801 87.222.127.47 (20 May 2010 21:38:59 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: news@netfront.net Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 20 May 2010 21:38:59 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.2 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:kEGs0PzvLp3YJUmEoR8JnNezr/k= Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:178316 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Thu, 09 Dec 2010 20:23:45 -0500 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:77253 Archived-At: dkcombs@panix.com (David Combs) writes: > Hi there -- > > Am trying to turn on someone to Emacs (gnu) -- been showing dired (to > me one of the cooler things), even wdired, (even doctor!), etc. > > What suggestions might you have, for getting someone excited about it? > > (Of course, he currently uses VI.) > > Thanks! > > David > > I was a VI user for quite ten years and then I switched to Emacs. I still use VI in other computers rather than mine, but Emacs is now my default application. May be, telling you what it make me switch to Emacs you'll have some idea where to go from. Of course,... nobody tried to convince me to use Emacs, it was my own choice, but it may help. Emacs is not just an editor, it's an incredible platform. The productivity increases in a very large amount just using Emacs and all its features. I can do every task inside Emacs (programming, compiling, instant messaging, multimedia system --emms--, sending/receiving mail, video editing --GNEVE--, newsgroups,...) I think you should focus on particular cases; hypothetical problems to be solved using VI and then using Emacs, and let him compare the results and decide about what is best. First begin with small tasks, the complicated ones should scary at first ("too many keystrokes to remember, etc.") like: * Let's search and replace using regular expresions * Let's make an HTML table (table-capture,...) * Let's code in C (c-mode, flymake,...) Let him create the scenarios and propose more of those problems, and show him how you deal with them in Emacs. Do not focus it as in a "VI vs. Emacs" war. Just show him another choice. Show him the Emacs screencasts you can find in: * http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/EmacsScreencasts And at last, show him the power of the mayor and minor modes, i.e. how the editor adatps to the user, and not viceversa. I think the modes is by far the best feature. If he complains about the keybindings, show him /vile/ (VI like Emacs) :-) -- Pferor --- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: news@netfront.net ---