Re: German tutorial fix

[Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>]

Francesco Potorti` <pot@gnu.org> writes:
> All the students that I happen to help with Emacs never ever think about
> using anything other than the keys to move around.  Why should they
> bother, when it is obvious what the arrow keys do?

Because the control keys are _better_.  You can read my previous
message if you wish to know why.

> All they usually memorize is maybe ten different keybindings, they use
> the mouse and the menus for the rest, like they do for almost any
> other program in the world.

If your students are so fearful, lazy, or busy that they'll only learn
ten different keybindings, then I'd say they're better off just using
the menus, and probably don't even need the tutorial.

> I am the Emacs wizard.  Yet, I never use the Ctrl keys for moving the
> cursor, unless I am in a situation where the arrow keys do not work well.

That's your choice.  Everybody has their preferences, and no one is
going to force you to use keys you don't like.  But by the same token,
you shouldn't try to force your opinion on others -- there _are_
advantages to using the control keys instead of the arrow keys, and we
should give people the chance to see that.  The tutorial is the place
to do that.

Perhaps the existance of arrow keys and the like means that C-f and
friends should be given _less_ precedence in the tutorial, but they
shouldn't be removed.

> I am really convinced that spending words in the tutorial about how one
> can move the cursor is a bad idea.  The C-f, C-b, C-n, C-p key bindings
> should not even be mentioned.

... and I am convinced that you are wrong.

Cheers,

-Miles
-- 
Would you like fries with that?