From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Joe Bush Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Making Emacs more newbie friendly Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 18:04:18 GMT Organization: RoadRunner - West Message-ID: References: <874qf8d3cy.fsf@thalassa.informatimago.com> <874qf7zlk5.fsf@thalassa.informatimago.com> <87mzszxlc1.fsf@thalassa.informatimago.com> <01c52d06$Blat.v2.4$afb8ba60@zahav.net.il> <16957.15707.79279.253809@mail.eng.it> <423D5ED6.5000202@yahoo.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1111341792 11126 80.91.229.2 (20 Mar 2005 18:03:12 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 18:03:12 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Mar 20 19:03:12 2005 Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DD4lY-00008U-LA for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 20 Mar 2005 19:03:08 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DD52U-0003ni-N6 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 20 Mar 2005 13:20:38 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!newshub.sdsu.edu!elnk-nf2-pas!elnk-pas-nf1!newsfeed.earthlink.net!cyclone.socal.rr.com!news-west.rr.com!news.rr.com!cyclone.kc.rr.com!cyclone2.kc.rr.com!news2.kc.rr.com!twister.socal.rr.com.POSTED!53ab2750!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 14 User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.2 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.94.72.37 Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@rr.com Original-X-Trace: twister.socal.rr.com 1111341858 24.94.72.37 (Sun, 20 Mar 2005 10:04:18 PST) Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 10:04:18 PST Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:129492 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:25046 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:25046 MS Word, at it's start, was anything but intuitive. There was even a 'WordPerfect' mode for those migrating from that program, which I used because it mapped the function keys to something I was familiar with. That said, I think the whole 'user-friendly' notion is over-rated, and misses the point. The only 'user-friendly' aspect that's worth anything is having a 'friendly user' around to turn to. So if a newbie is working around people who are using emacs, they'll learn emacs faster. If they're working with people using MS Whatever, they'll learn that faster. And those who turn to emacs are, for the most part, doing so because MS Whatever isn't fulfilling their needs anyway, even with the dancing doo-dads,dialogs for everything, and pointy-clickey icons.