From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Tim X Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: basic question: going back to dired Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:25:01 +1000 Organization: Rapt Technologies Message-ID: <87myk828zm.fsf@lion.rapttech.com.au> References: <4884DC7F.6060406@gmail.com> <819feff4-76e3-4bf8-9ece-7b47f099efc2@j22g2000hsf.googlegroups.com> <87mykaw8sb.fsf@nonospaz.fatphil.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1216810197 7492 80.91.229.12 (23 Jul 2008 10:49:57 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:49:57 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Jul 23 12:50:45 2008 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 4.50) id 1KLbvg-0003sX-MB for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:50:44 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:53273 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KLbun-0000E1-2A for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:49:49 -0400 Original-Path: news.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!newshub.sdsu.edu!news.astraweb.com!border1.newsrouter.astraweb.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.0.60 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:RiU+KLSmJAC0ivs0nrwfDEXEK1c= Original-Lines: 34 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 1430aba9.news.astraweb.com Original-X-Trace: DXC=21fNGQ`b14J0UO2<>T]L; AL?0kYOcDh@JIGb]mONgOiJ9_G0=\R`VdLRTFYYW29Y\JF0?>h7LV04H Original-Xref: news.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:160498 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:55846 Archived-At: "Juanma Barranquero" writes: > On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 14:34, Miles Bader wrote: > >> It's not that "keybinding" is somehow extra good, it's that "shortcut" >> is unusually bad. > > Agreed. I don't like Xah Lee's proposals. But I think that he's right > that Emacs' use of outdated terminology sometimes hampers adoption by > new users. > so what? I'm not trying to be argumentative, but what does it really matter if new users have a bit of a learning curve? Why should emacs appear to be just like any other text editor? While probably sounding provocative, how many new uses who are not prepared to learn emacs terminology are actually going to contribute anything? If they don't contribute anything, what does it matter if there is only 1 a year or 100 a week? Taking things in another direction, could it not be that as emacs is significantly different in approach, functionality and extensibility than nearly all other editors, might not a different terminology actually help new uses grasp that this is not just another editor? There could be an argument that making users learn from scratch and with different terminology will help because it makes them adopt a new mindset and stops them from comparing it to what they already know? Tim -- tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au