* Re: Editors for TEI
[not found] ` <20100127112453.GA70317@mail11c.verio-web.com>
@ 2010-01-27 18:33 ` Andreas Roehler
2010-01-28 0:42 ` Sean Sieger
0 siblings, 1 reply; 2+ messages in thread
From: Andreas Roehler @ 2010-01-27 18:33 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: TEI-L; +Cc: emacs-devel
Wendell Piez wrote:
> Peter,
>
> At 05:37 PM 1/26/2010, you wrote:
>> Lou and Patrick are both right, of course, in different circumstances.
>> I used to try and tell users that editing text using Emacs isn't
>> difficult, just different (I was wrong: for a beginner, it's difficult
>> :-)
>
> I think learning Emacs is like learning to pronounce French.
>
> If you are lucky, you get a chance to do it when a crucial developmental
> window is open. This is probably in your (relative) youth, and probably
> fairly early in your experience with computers, before brain pathways
> have been consolidated. Then it becomes second nature and you don't see
> why anyone can't do it.
>
> If you're like most of us, you miss the window and you never learn. And
> trying to fake it is frustrating and embarrassing.
>
> On the other hand, you might know another language, which serves you
> quite nicely despite its purported deficiencies.
>
> Cheers,
> Wendell
>
>
>
> ======================================================================
> Wendell Piez mailto:wapiez@mulberrytech.com
> Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com
> 17 West Jefferson Street Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
> Suite 207 Phone: 301/315-9631
> Rockville, MD 20850 Fax: 301/315-8285
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML
> ======================================================================
>
Hi,
sorry for being a little bit serious about it...
See three different causes for Emacs being difficult for beginners - while finally living without seems just no longer acceptable :-)
1) wrong didactic focus of built-in Emacs-tutorials on keys instead of commands or rules
2) the freedom to change and/or extend is a dangerous promess for beginners, and still in later times ;-)
3) Environments for different languages are to build up by hand often
The good news IMHO: All that may be avoided by a better guide for beginners, resp. a delivered customization.
Andreas
--
https://code.launchpad.net/s-x-emacs-werkstatt/
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 2+ messages in thread
* Re: Editors for TEI
2010-01-27 18:33 ` Editors for TEI Andreas Roehler
@ 2010-01-28 0:42 ` Sean Sieger
0 siblings, 0 replies; 2+ messages in thread
From: Sean Sieger @ 2010-01-28 0:42 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: emacs-devel; +Cc: TEI-L
See three different causes for Emacs being difficult for beginners -
while finally living without seems just no longer acceptable :-)
1) wrong didactic focus of built-in Emacs-tutorials on keys instead
of commands or rules
`C-h t' is a long-cherished command that---if I understand you
correctly---was the _key_ to my affinity for GNU/Emacs: editing
movement unlike any other that I know of on this planet. And it is
always and already the tip of my list of things to improve on as
it---editing movement---is what makes my work easier, um, speedier.
2) the freedom to change and/or extend is a dangerous promess for
beginners, and still in later times ;-)
Conservation. To my way of thinking, an important lesson in learning
about learning is that learning is a negative experience. The larger
the `chunk' to be negated the less pleasant the learning experience.
3) Environments for different languages are to build up by hand
often
Like all environments of production.
The good news IMHO: All that may be avoided by a better guide for
beginners, resp. a delivered customization.
If I understand `delivered customization' correctly, the suggestion
flies in the face of GNU/Emacs extensibility. The defaults alone
abstract one away from a perfectly usable, albeit quirky, editor.
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 2+ messages in thread
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2010-01-27 18:33 ` Editors for TEI Andreas Roehler
2010-01-28 0:42 ` Sean Sieger
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