From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: =?utf-8?Q?=C3=93scar_Fuentes?= Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Emacs learning curve Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:28:28 +0200 Message-ID: <87vd86ymc3.fsf@telefonica.net> References: <4C3B6A8A.80105@gmx.de> <87wrt0e81n.fsf@telefonica.net> <62E9699C07054418AB66F9C5FCB54E5C@us.oracle.com> <87sk3oe3la.fsf@telefonica.net> <1154D96E7D2F401D849266F359E44BB9@us.oracle.com> <87ocecdzou.fsf@telefonica.net> <2256C17F740A425884AD551DE7758056@us.oracle.com> <87fwzodqqm.fsf@telefonica.net> <5138CDF30B2D4B778F948015614DA7BC@us.oracle.com> <87iq4ijtdy.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> <270AD461F0F14E549F82D88785A23A0A@us.oracle.com> <876306140d.fsf@telefonica.net> <24CFA9D538E942AEA803109469898525@us.oracle.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1279916967 24451 80.91.229.12 (23 Jul 2010 20:29:27 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:29:27 +0000 (UTC) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Jul 23 22:29:26 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OcOs0-0006DF-TI for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:29:25 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:48705 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OcOs0-0002p9-66 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:29:24 -0400 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=38656 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OcOrP-0002Tk-Cz for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:28:48 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OcOrO-0007yd-3k for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:28:46 -0400 Original-Received: from lo.gmane.org ([80.91.229.12]:36417) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OcOrN-0007yP-KZ for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:28:46 -0400 Original-Received: from list by lo.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OcOrI-0005yr-Ai for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:28:40 +0200 Original-Received: from 83.42.13.171 ([83.42.13.171]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:28:40 +0200 Original-Received: from ofv by 83.42.13.171 with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:28:40 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 36 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 83.42.13.171 User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.0.50 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:hGi7XJd/sTJJTUseAuAvh7zFvY4= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:127726 Archived-At: "Drew Adams" writes: >> > We've seen no _evidence_ about a supposed dearth of newbies >> > coming to Emacs, in spite of repeated _claims_. No >> > Emacs-is-dying problem has been shown, so far. >> >> Of course it is very hard to show statistics for newbies. >> OTOH, absence of proof does not indicate that the fact does >> not exists. > > Can you say "Tooth Fairy"? "Santa Claus"? > > I won't mention other religious figures. Can you say "Barack Obama"? "Paris Hilton"? I have the same amount of evidence about their existence than of Santa Claus. But somehow I've concluded that Barack Obama exists, and Santa Claus does not. Some people would oppose that conclusion, though. Maybe that discrepancy is to to the fact that I'm interested on pursuing the truth, while others chose to narrow their knowledge-adquiring devices for supporting wathever makes them feel happy. For a long period of the PC era, Emacs was the king of the text editors for technical users. Maybe some people had other preferences, but they could hardly argue about the power of Emacs. Nowadays Emacs lacks behind on productivity features for the needs of a large, growing set of their target users and is going the way of OS/2, VAX, the Amiga and other pieces of software that stay alive as living fossils just because the efforts of some enthusiasts. If you doubt that, please join the group that believes on the existence of Santa Claus. What I'm trying to convey here is that Emacs can be again a top-notch programming environment, second to none, the first choice for every hacker. The first requisite for that is to stop being self-complacent. And stop looking down on others too.