From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Emanuel Berg Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: RFC: Flavors - naming significant sets of customizations Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 02:03:28 +0100 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Message-ID: <87fvqkht3a.fsf@nl106-137-194.student.uu.se> References: <9fc6b1ae-7cbd-4a17-a9a0-f4af42969312@googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1385427913 28978 80.91.229.3 (26 Nov 2013 01:05:13 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 01:05:13 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Nov 26 02:05:19 2013 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@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 1Vl75b-0003zH-Ga for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 26 Nov 2013 02:05:19 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:55760 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Vl75a-0000DC-G5 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 25 Nov 2013 20:05:18 -0500 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!goblin2!goblin.stu.neva.ru!aioe.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 46 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: VVbyYd/iFZoeWNmD9i++cQ.user.speranza.aioe.org Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.4 (gnu/linux) X-Notice: Filtered by postfilter v. 0.8.2 Cancel-Lock: sha1:fWP6tmvChDluCHDjuaGTg+M8wA0= Mail-Copies-To: never Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:202369 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:94638 Archived-At: > Has anyone already come up with a name for large > customizations? I've noticed a number of efforts to > significantly customize Emacs in a way that other > people can readily use. The first term that came to > mind was "flavor", as it seems to largely be a matter > of taste. It can be a matter of taste but it can also be a matter of necessity. At a "middle level" it can be a matter of severely increasing your productivity. At an "attitude level" it is about being serious about one of the most important things in all activity: the human-tool coordination and interaction ("interface", I guess, but a dynamic one). "Theme" and "skin" do it an injustice, as at least my associations of those words is that it is a matter of "look and feel" only. Remember the winamp mp3 player? It had skins (or "skinz", x0 x0). Java applications have themes: if you juggle with the jar-files/classpath, extract the main class, download the themes (often many, as they inherit from each other), set the look and feel option - and then, you are almost done! Customizing and programming Emacs is on a whole other level. I don't want to be associated with that kind of lunacy. That Emacs in general should not be customized/extended is *radical*, this is the property of Emacs that is always emphasized, and people always say "I wish it was like in Emacs" when they use other applications and stumble upon something they don't like: "... then I could just fix it instantly!" However, you should not get stuck in it. But if you do, it is not the worst place to get stuck in. Every minimal change I do to Emacs is something I immediately benefit from, no matter how little. Compare this to all guys who get stuck in their "MMORPG" projects that will never be done anyway, and from which whatever knowledge that is nevertheless gained is very difficult to apply anywhere else. -- Emanuel Berg, programmer-for-rent. CV, projects, etc at uXu underground experts united: http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573