Re: emacs-w3m question

[Richard Riley <rileyrgdev@gmail.com>]

Paul R <paul.r.ml@gmail.com> writes:

> Dear Xavier,
>
> Xavier> What's more, directional keys are one of the dumbest addition
> Xavier> one could have thought off (in my opinion). The same apply for
> Xavier> numerical keypad: what are they useful for exactly ? Is it that
> Xavier> hard to press shift+& (for the azerty keyboard) to get a 1 ? Or
> Xavier> press C-b to move point left ? I do not think so.
>
> Xavier> The real reason that comes to mind is lazyness. People do not
> Xavier> want to (take time to) learn how to do things, they want to go
> Xavier> fast (even if they go fast wrongly). Keyboard (or typing more
> Xavier> generally) is just an example, there are so many other applying
> Xavier> here...
>
> This sounds sooo much like overstated elitism. You may prefer to use C-b
> and C-f and S-&, because you're so good and so l33t, this will never
> change the point : beginners don't, period. Default settings must help
> those people, who have not yet set their .emacs, to use and try the
> software and see if they like it or not.

That's pretty much as I see it too. And only recently having become
proficient enough with emacs once again I can attest to the difficulties
involved in understanding some of the more antiquated defaults which do
not take into account beginners. It takes a special kind of curmudgeon
to deny that setting the arrow keys to move the cursor the same as
virtually every other application in the world would help Emacs uptake.