From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Stefan Monnier Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Do we want more choice? (was Bookmark the end of file?) Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2015 13:20:15 -0400 Message-ID: References: <87vbh8hlns.fsf@wmi.amu.edu.pl> <1b751175-4544-44e7-bbcd-d5a01bf92624@default> <39b824d1-e8d2-4bf7-a983-c6cefff83dad@googlegroups.com> <291260f3-daa1-4ab4-8840-2ee9b9f164ec@default> <20150413071741.GA22660@tuxteam.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1428945733 17230 80.91.229.3 (13 Apr 2015 17:22:13 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2015 17:22:13 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Apr 13 19:22:05 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Yhi34-0008E6-Ow for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 13 Apr 2015 19:21:26 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:52868 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Yhi34-0004A1-4M for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 13 Apr 2015 13:21:26 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:38025) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Yhi2t-00049t-CE for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 13 Apr 2015 13:21:16 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Yhi2p-0001BL-91 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 13 Apr 2015 13:21:15 -0400 Original-Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:38253) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Yhi2p-0001BH-23 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 13 Apr 2015 13:21:11 -0400 Original-Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Yhi2M-0007mz-W5 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Mon, 13 Apr 2015 19:20:43 +0200 Original-Received: from 23-91-157-11.cpe.pppoe.ca ([23.91.157.11]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Mon, 13 Apr 2015 19:20:42 +0200 Original-Received: from monnier by 23-91-157-11.cpe.pppoe.ca with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Mon, 13 Apr 2015 19:20:42 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 16 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 23-91-157-11.cpe.pppoe.ca User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/25.0.50 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:jnyadbw8NI4QN1PttTfhIu7E7sQ= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 80.91.229.3 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:103691 Archived-At: > I have the strong suspicion that the "less choice is good" movement > we are seeing stems from being too lazy (or at a loss) wrt thinking > hard about how to guide the user through a rich set of choices. The > latter would be, in my view, the right thing to do. There are many ways to interpret "less choice is good". For me, what it means is that adding a custom variable, a C-u prefix, or a new command just to "give more choice" is often actually either laziness or a reflection of the fact that it's very hard to find a better UI. Of course, in Emacs we get to enjoy even more cop-outs and more choices, since most of the "missing choices" are available to the end user, modulo a few advice-add and enough motivation ;-) Stefan