From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Alan Mackenzie Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Making Emacs more newbie friendly Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 17:51:42 +0000 Organization: muc.de e.V. -- private internet access Message-ID: References: <874qf8d3cy.fsf@thalassa.informatimago.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1111356894 28513 80.91.229.2 (20 Mar 2005 22:14:54 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 22:14:54 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Mar 20 23:14:54 2005 Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DD8h5-00049K-Hy for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 20 Mar 2005 23:14:47 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DD8y3-0000eZ-Td for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 20 Mar 2005 17:32:19 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news-FFM2.ecrc.net!news0.de.colt.net!news-fra1.dfn.de!news-stu1.dfn.de!news.belwue.de!informatik.tu-muenchen.de!news.muc.de!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 38 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: acm.muc.de Original-X-Trace: marvin.muc.de 1111356550 85981 193.149.49.134 (20 Mar 2005 22:09:10 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: news-admin@muc.de Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: 20 Mar 2005 22:09:10 GMT User-Agent: tin/1.4.5-20010409 ("One More Nightmare") (UNIX) (Linux/2.0.35 (i686)) Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:129503 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org X-MailScanner-To: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:25055 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:25055 PT wrote on Sat, 19 Mar 2005 17:57:55 +0100: > On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 17:22:49 +0100, David Kastrup 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").