From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Alfred M. Szmidt" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Emacs learning curve Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:53:42 -0400 Message-ID: References: <10954D02-E217-49F3-8824-757DA34074AB@gmail.com> <83zkxzakr0.fsf@gnu.org> <83pqyva8ms.fsf@gnu.org> Reply-To: ams@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1278957236 29773 80.91.229.12 (12 Jul 2010 17:53:56 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:53:56 +0000 (UTC) Cc: levelhalom@gmail.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Lennart Borgman Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Jul 12 19:53:54 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 1OYNCT-00030d-63 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:53:53 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:38536 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OYNCS-0003Gq-Je for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:53:52 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=46414 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OYNCK-0003G2-9G for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:53:44 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1OYNCJ-0002yW-4B for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:53:44 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([140.186.70.10]:49002) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1OYNCI-0002yS-TE for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:53:43 -0400 Original-Received: from ams by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OYNCI-0007FX-LN; Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:53:42 -0400 In-reply-to: (message from Lennart Borgman on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:08:43 +0200) X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.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:127115 Archived-At: > Recently I've started using Eclipse as part of my job, and it > uses several words whos definition I'm not familiar with; for > example view, perspective and workspace.  I've used Eclipse daily > now for four months, and the terminology still doesn't stick for > me.  Does this make Eclipse harder to use? Not at all.  Does it > make it more complex? Not really.  They are just words, with > some meaning. You say it does not make it more complex to you. That is ok of course. It is how you experience it. But consider a person who have used Eclipse, is familiar with the words "view", "perspective" and "workspace". It that person want to try Emacs instead he might try a quick look at the documentation and there he searches for these words, since those happens to be important to him/her. Woldn't that be a bit harder if different words where used in Emacs for the same things? If we can assume that a new emacs user has followed the tutorial -- which I hink is a fair assumption, then the user will know what those terms mean in the context of emacs. If the user is still confused after reading the tutorial, then that is a bug in the tutorial, not in the terminology we use. The different terminology does make it harder at times to communicate, but it doesn't hinder one from using emacs (or any other program), when you do need to explain something to someone you can always use baby-talk: that knob, do you know how to frob it so that it bobs?