Re: Making Emacs more newbie friendly

[Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>]

PT <mailshield.gg@mailnull.com> wrote on Sat, 19 Mar 2005 17:57:55 +0100:
> On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 17:22:49 +0100, David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> wrote:

[ .... ]

> Exactly. I don't know what resources are at the emacs developers'
> disposal  (do they work on it on their free time? is some of them paid
> to work on  Emacs?), but if companies see more value in emacs then they
> might even  sponsor developing some new features for them.

Well, there's one Emacs developer down here in Munich who regularly posts
to an Emacs mailing list from his employer's mail system in working time.
That strongly suggests that his company is sponsoring the development of
his package.

> At companies when it comes to choosing a developer tool the
> recommendation  of the employees and their existing experience with
> those tools can be an important factor at the decision.

What a strange notion!  When it comes to tools like text editors,
developers should be allowed to chose their own tools, even if they are
proprietary and expensive.  What could be more damaging to productivity
than being forced to use an unfamiliar and disliked text editor?

> So if Emacs is more newbie friendly that can mean more potential users,
> more value as a tool for employers and  possibly more resources for
> future development.

Emacs is primarily a tool for professionals, and it is necessary to
invest a lot of time in learning it before the returns show.  Making it
"newbie friendly" would be good only if it didn't make Emacs less good
for experienced users.

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Munich, Germany)
Email: aacm@muuc.dee; to decode, wherever there is a repeated letter
(like "aa"), remove half of them (leaving, say, "a").