From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Riley Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: diff-mode Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:45:32 +0100 Organization: aich tea tea pea dicky riley dot net Message-ID: References: <6174A3FCFD074EF5A396A7D095DEB814@us.oracle.com> <886669ef-277b-4056-97e0-4580e90ce614@k25g2000vbl.googlegroups.com> <79a18560-1385-439d-ad0b-ec386a352d4f@q8g2000prm.googlegroups.com> 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 1292427525 12720 80.91.229.12 (15 Dec 2010 15:38:45 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:38:45 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Dec 15 16:38:40 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@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 1PStQK-0002yS-DK for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:38:34 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:44131 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PStQI-0004M5-81 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 15 Dec 2010 10:37:46 -0500 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!uio.no!quimby.gnus.org!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 38 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 85.183.18.158 Original-X-Trace: quimby.gnus.org 1292341532 10282 85.183.18.158 (14 Dec 2010 15:45:32 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@quimby.gnus.org Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:45:32 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.110011 (No Gnus v0.11) Emacs/23.2 (gnu/linux) Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:183255 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 10:34:28 -0500 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 Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:77533 Archived-At: Elena writes: > On Dec 14, 10:11 am, Eli Zaretskii wrote: >> That's not true.  Usability is quite high on the developers' agenda. >> If you report usability problems as bugs, they will be handled. > > I do not doubt it. They just can't understand such issues however. > It's not their faults. They are geeks, just like me and - I think - > you. If we were them, we couldn't do any better. > > Newbies flock to other editors because newbies find such editors > easier to use. Geeks know such editors just seem easier, or are > easier just in the short run, and shrug their shoulders. > >> > I applaud your effort to use Emacs for diffs.  I gave up very quickly >> > and to this day I still stick to WinMerge. >> >> Feel free to use LoseMerge, Ediff beats it any time with both hands >> behind its back.  You gave up too quickly. > > I don't doubt it. However, as many things Emacs, its interface seems > foreign. I couldn't find a way to compare directories and have a > summary of changed files, from which navigate to such files. If > someone could post a video about how to accomplish such a task with > Emacs... Similarly with dired. The thing is that I generally find that at first I hate why certain things are. It's only later that you realise, as you become familiar with a tool, why its like that. And invariably there is a good reason. This happens all the time in Emacs. Unfortunately I believe thats the wrong way to build SW if you have any interest in attracting new users : better, in that case, to default for "nOOb morons" (and I include myself in that ;)) and let the power users customise as they see fit. The reluctance to CUA by default would be one such an example or the reluctance to turn on the X clipboard by default. At least one of which has now changed I believe.