From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: PT Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Making Emacs more newbie friendly Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 17:57:55 +0100 Organization: Aioe.org NNTP Server Message-ID: References: <874qf8d3cy.fsf@thalassa.informatimago.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; delsp=yes; charset=iso-8859-15 Content-Transfer-Encoding: Quoted-Printable X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1111251658 18992 80.91.229.2 (19 Mar 2005 17:00:58 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 17:00:58 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Mar 19 18:00:58 2005 Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DChJQ-0000pj-0t for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 19 Mar 2005 18:00:32 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1DCha8-0006Lc-UW for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 19 Mar 2005 12:17:48 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews.google.com!news3.google.com!news.glorb.com!feeder2.on.meganewsservers.com!meganewsservers.com!textfeed1.on.meganewsservers.com!82.105.139.196.MISMATCH!news.nntprelay.net!aioe.org!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 47 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 9EGqVzZOPJF34TsvHVPUaQ.domitilla.aioe.org Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@aioe.org Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 16:56:01 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Opera M2/7.54 (Win32, build 3865) Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:129409 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:24964 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:24964 On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 17:22:49 +0100, David Kastrup wrote: >> >> The question is: is more people using Emacs a good thing at all? Or >> is it only an additional burden (more clueless people on the help >> forums, etc.)? > > You are trying to frame loaded questions. No, it was a sincere question. And if the answer is no, it's not a good = = thing then I'm okay with it. > What is "a good thing"? > More people using Emacs is not a worthwhile objective per se. If it > were, we should replace Emacs by toiletpaper, and its user base would > explode. A worthwhile objective for a developer is to have Emacs > become a more productive tool for his work. This is not unrelated to > the size of its user base, since developers usually tend to start out > as users. Exactly. I don't know what resources are at the emacs developers' dispos= al = (do they work on it on their free time? is some of them paid to work on = = Emacs?), but if companies see more value in emacs then they might even = sponsor developing some new features for them. At companies when it comes to choosing a developer tool the recommendati= on = of the employees and their existing experience with those tools can be a= n = important factor at the decision. So if Emacs is more newbie friendly = that can mean more potential users, more value as a tool for employers a= nd = possibly more resources for future development. -- = Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/