Re: What is the most useful potential feature which Emacs lacks?

[Christopher Lemmer Webber <cwebber@dustycloud.org>]

Karl Fogel writes:

> On 12 May 2020, Christopher Lemmer Webber wrote:
>
>>Thus if there's a space for paid work, I think it would be to do this
>>work which might not be as directly useful to the developer, but would
>>be directly useful to other newcomers.  It would be useful and important
>>IMO to directly test against newcomers' experiences and collect feedback.
>
> FWIW -- and perhaps to your surprise -- I would argue that this is *not* the important question for Emacs.
>
> I've explained why in another thread:
>
>   https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2020-05/msg01855.html

Hi Karl, nice to hear you reply to me :)

I agree with a lot of your assessments, that the highest value in Emacs
is the willingness to invest in it.  A well customized emacs conforms to
the shape of one's body and mind.  And I agree then that this is a
selling point to advertise.

I still don't think that's in contradiction to the "conventional editor
starter pack" goal though.  I know people who are tantalized by the
*idea* of learning Emacs, but get an enormous amount of imposter
syndrome and feeling of being overwhelmed when dipping their toes in the
water... some have tried dipping their toes in the water a few times.

Me personally, once I decided to learn emacs I just jumped straight into
the deep end.  But that's not for everyone.  Sometimes it can be nice to
have a wading area in the swimming pool for some folks.

That's my feeling, anyway.
 - Chris