From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Pascal Bourguignon Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Making Emacs more newbie friendly Date: 20 Mar 2005 00:16:53 +0100 Organization: [posted via Easynet Spain] Message-ID: <87r7ibxm3e.fsf@thalassa.informatimago.com> References: <874qf8d3cy.fsf@thalassa.informatimago.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1111274289 1550 80.91.229.2 (19 Mar 2005 23:18:09 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 23:18:09 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Mar 20 00:18:09 2005 Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DCnCl-0003MR-N1 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 20 Mar 2005 00:18:03 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DCnTY-0000ZC-3S for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 19 Mar 2005 18:35:24 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!newsfeed.news2me.com!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.fjserv.net!colt.net!news-lond.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!easynet-quince!easynet.net!easynet-post2!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3 Original-Lines: 24 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 62.93.174.79 Original-X-Trace: DXC=Sn5;WXS:>TR^7nH_Yo3lhSiZdW>mQFP3VbBd4DjF1d]Q Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:129448 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org 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 X-MailScanner-To: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:25003 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:25003 PT writes: > We should answer this question first, because if attracting more users > to Emacs is not really a priority then this thread is completely > pointless. Well, it seems RMS had success in teaching secretaries use emacs and even "customize" it (programming emacs lisp without telling them they were programming!). I think that ultimately it would be a very good thing for programmers to have more users knowing applications such as emacs, which can be customized programming in lisp, and knowing a little programming to do so, because we programmers know better write programs than "use" applications (who can stand to cut-and-paste 400 times instead of writting a small emacs lisp function for an automatic systematic edit?), and because it would open the users' minds letting them realize that they need programmers to write complex programs instead of sweating with Microsoft^W proprietary unprogrammable applications. -- __Pascal Bourguignon__ http://www.informatimago.com/ Small brave carnivores Kill pine cones and mosquitoes Fear vacuum cleaner