I believe that the "beginner" here in question is not someone who just
started using emacs but a beginner contributor who is already comfortable
with emacs and is interested in contributing to the C code but isn't
because there isn't enough "Getting started with C tinkering in emacs"
documentation.

I like the points that Xue made there with an example of what a "beginner"
would go through when trying to understand the display engine.

--
Kaushal Modi
On Sep 24, 2015 4:35 AM, "David Kastrup" <dak@gnu.org> wrote:

> Xue Fuqiao <xfq.free@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > BTW, I was just trying making an analysis of the this problem, and of
> > course my analysis could be wrong.  Do you have any idea why newcomers
> > mostly prefer working on application-level code in Lisp?
>
> In my opinion that's a feature, not a bug.  Elisp is there for a reason.
>
> > (Let's try and stay constructive.  If we can find the causes, then we
> > have the possibility to improve the current condition.)
>
> We have Elisp exactly in order not to have to address problems by
> reverting to C programming.  In my opinion it is entirely the wrong idea
> to have people start solving problems in C because they prefer it to
> Elisp.  The main reason to solve problems in C is because there is no
> reasonably workable solution to be created in Elisp.  If beginners turn
> to C first, they will not even know whether there would be a reasonably
> workable solution available in Elisp.
>
> Elisp code can be debugged reasonably nicely, manages its memory and
> data structures reliably.  It's concise, memory-efficient and
> expressive.
>
> --
> David Kastrup
>
>