Re: The minibuffer vs. Dialog Boxes (Re: Making XEmacs be more up-to-date)

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@xemacs.org>]

>>>>> "Andy" == Andy Piper <andy@xemacs.org> writes:

    Andy> I think the issue is not so much that Emacs uses weird
    Andy> terminology but that Emacs uses different terminology to a
    Andy> hundred other editors. Seems like we're arguing for
    Andy> Esperanto rather than words that are actually in the
    Andy> dictionary.

    >> -----Original Message-----

Followed by about 100 lines of uninterrupted quote.

Talking about Emacs requires a much bigger vocabulary than talking
about text widgets that cause intelligent people to top-post.

It's true that we do use words like "file" and "window" differently
from other editors, but the distinctions that cause these distinct
usages will not go away without drastically changing Emacs, and
reducing its capabilities.

It's true that many of the "programmer's editors" you advocate that
Emacs emulate have specialized capabilities we can dream of having in
a year or two at best, but none of them provide the kind of
flexibility that Emacs does.  Describing that flexibility precisely
and accurately does require words that are only found in unabridged
dictionaries, or in specialist's jargon glossaries.

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