From: "Robert J. Chassell" <bob@rattlesnake.com>
Subject: Re: describe-bindings: ^L, bad order, naming
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 12:28:08 +0000 (UTC) [thread overview]
Message-ID: <m1EauUK-0004RqC@rattlesnake.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <uek5m2x6k.fsf@gnu.org> (message from Eli Zaretskii on Sat, 12 Nov 2005 08:32:35 +0200)
??? Strange logic. If I print the buffer (I admit I never did
that; is there someone here that did?), why should I care exactly
how many printed pages will I get?
The logic makes sense but the procedures are not for experts.
You are an expert. Many novices print what they see. They should not
-- after all, a computer plus printer is more than an early 20th
century typesetting machine plus printing machine -- but they do.
Also, novices tend not to distinguish between buffers that are
visiting files and buffers that are not visiting files: they just
print what they see or, if they are blind and have a braille printer,
what they hear.
I know one person who prints her email! (She also did not want to
print a book of mine because she feared it would have too many pages
and take too long.) Experts print far less frequently.
Years ago, I wrote the page-ext.el functions so I could readily
determine whether the number of lines in a page was too many for my
printer, which could only print pages of 66 or fewer lines.
Nowadays, I hardly ever print hardcopy and forget the keybinding for a
`pages-directory' command that lists the number of lines in each page.
(It uses a positive, numeric prefix key. Also, you must load
"page-ext" first; it is part of the distribution but not autoloaded.)
On looking, the command turns out to be `C-u 8 C-x C-p C-d' and works
with Juri Linkov's display setting,
(aset standard-display-table ?\f (vconcat (make-vector 64 ?-) "^L"))
since that setting does not effect contents only display.
I just checked: Mile's suggestion also works: to put the caret and
the L characters after an indent and then a line of hyphens,
(aset standard-display-table ?\f (vconcat " ^L " (make-vector 64 ?-)))
Thus, when I run `C-h b' (describe-bindings) on this email buffer, and
then run `C-u 8 C-x C-p C-d' on the resulting *Help* buffer, I see
8: Key translations:
4: `say-minor-mode' Minor Mode Bindings:
17: `mc-write-mode' Minor Mode Bindings:
52: Major Mode Bindings:
1094: Global Bindings:
88: Function key map translations:
Everyone starts out as a novice. Consequently, it is worth making it
easy for novices to learn the jargon and to learn how to become more
efficient.
I remember -- more than 20 years ago, before learning about Emacs --
typing each key chord in a program to discover the keybindings. The
program lacked documentation but was easy for a novice to learn since
you could put a mouse cursor on a menu item and execute the command
that way. But those commands were inefficient -- after all, who wants
to move the mouse cursor to a menu in order to mark a whole buffer
when you can type `C-x h'?
In general, as people become more proficient, they want to waste their
time less. For this Emacs is good. (As is Emacspeak, which is for
listening rather than seeing -- for the permanently blind and for
people driving cars and such, who are `situationally blind').
--
Robert J. Chassell
bob@rattlesnake.com GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.rattlesnake.com http://www.teak.cc
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2005-11-12 12:28 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 93+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2005-11-10 20:29 describe-bindings: ^L, bad order, naming David Reitter
2005-11-10 21:27 ` Drew Adams
2005-11-10 21:38 ` Lennart Borgman
2005-11-11 1:03 ` Robert J. Chassell
2005-11-11 2:55 ` Miles Bader
2005-11-11 9:18 ` Kim F. Storm
2005-11-11 7:43 ` David Reitter
2005-11-11 9:05 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-11 10:20 ` Henrik Enberg
2005-11-13 20:54 ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-11-13 22:08 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-13 23:13 ` David Reitter
2005-11-14 0:10 ` Miles Bader
2005-11-14 0:19 ` Lennart Borgman
2005-11-14 4:28 ` Stefan Monnier
2005-11-14 15:35 ` Lennart Borgman
2005-11-15 5:43 ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-11-19 11:25 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-15 3:58 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-14 4:40 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-14 17:48 ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-11-14 18:18 ` Help menu (was: Re: describe-bindings: ^L, bad order, naming) David Reitter
2005-11-15 4:07 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-15 4:11 ` Help menu Juri Linkov
2005-11-15 17:45 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-15 18:07 ` Help menu (was: Re: describe-bindings: ^L, bad order, naming) Richard M. Stallman
2005-11-15 18:19 ` Drew Adams
2005-11-15 18:15 ` Drew Adams
2005-11-16 22:04 ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-11-16 23:29 ` Drew Adams
2005-11-18 17:00 ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-11-18 17:58 ` Drew Adams
2005-11-18 18:21 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-19 23:26 ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-11-19 23:44 ` Drew Adams
2005-11-19 23:26 ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-11-19 23:44 ` Drew Adams
2005-11-16 22:04 ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-11-14 10:45 ` describe-bindings: ^L, bad order, naming Jason Rumney
2005-11-11 8:54 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-11 9:25 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-11 8:51 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-11 18:02 ` Drew Adams
2005-11-11 18:26 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-11 20:47 ` Robert J. Chassell
2005-11-11 8:47 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-11 9:33 ` David Reitter
2005-11-11 10:02 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-11 10:17 ` David Reitter
2005-11-11 18:02 ` Drew Adams
2005-11-11 19:01 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-11 19:10 ` Drew Adams
2005-11-11 20:49 ` Luc Teirlinck
2005-11-11 21:16 ` David Reitter
2005-11-11 21:26 ` Luc Teirlinck
2005-11-11 22:32 ` David Reitter
2005-11-11 22:42 ` Miles Bader
2005-11-11 23:40 ` David Reitter
2005-11-11 21:25 ` Drew Adams
2005-11-12 6:32 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-12 12:28 ` Robert J. Chassell [this message]
2005-11-12 12:58 ` David Reitter
2005-11-12 14:28 ` Luc Teirlinck
2005-11-12 19:48 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-12 20:20 ` Miles Bader
2005-11-12 6:25 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-11-12 13:56 ` Drew Adams
2005-11-11 19:13 ` Lennart Borgman
2005-11-13 20:54 ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-11-11 19:35 ` Juri Linkov
2005-11-11 21:01 ` David Reitter
2005-11-12 21:19 ` Juri Linkov
2005-11-12 21:41 ` Drew Adams
2005-11-12 21:53 ` Miles Bader
2005-11-12 23:09 ` Drew Adams
2005-11-12 23:23 ` Chong Yidong
2005-11-12 23:35 ` Drew Adams
2005-11-14 4:54 ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-11-14 0:55 ` Juri Linkov
2005-11-13 20:54 ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-11-13 21:16 ` Drew Adams
2005-11-13 21:23 ` Lennart Borgman
2005-11-13 23:06 ` David Reitter
2005-11-15 5:43 ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-12-29 17:11 ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-12-29 18:54 ` Stefan Monnier
2005-12-30 4:56 ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-12-30 5:09 ` Stefan Monnier
2005-12-30 10:39 ` Andreas Schwab
2005-12-30 22:11 ` Richard M. Stallman
2005-11-14 11:59 ` David Reitter
2005-11-14 14:27 ` Drew Adams
2005-11-15 5:43 ` Richard M. Stallman
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