From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Thorsten Jolitz Subject: Re: converting people to Emacs and org-mode Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:46:19 +0200 Message-ID: <87ip3wjdlw.fsf@gmail.com> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:47356) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UPUCF-00037f-Tz for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 09 Apr 2013 04:46:33 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UPUCE-0008TM-Dd for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 09 Apr 2013 04:46:31 -0400 Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:60898) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UPUCE-0008TH-6o for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 09 Apr 2013 04:46:30 -0400 Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1UPUCC-0001tZ-CP for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:46:28 +0200 Received: from e178058213.adsl.alicedsl.de ([85.178.58.213]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:46:28 +0200 Received: from tjolitz by e178058213.adsl.alicedsl.de with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Tue, 09 Apr 2013 10:46:28 +0200 List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org 42 147 writes: > This might be considered off-topic. Maybe not? I know of a fantastic Lisp dialect and web/database programming-environment out there ,------------------------------------ | PicoLisp | http://picolisp.com/5000/!wiki?home `------------------------------------ that suffers exactly from the rather low conversion rate of people to it, which is kind of hard to explain given its quality. But maybe Paul Graham is right in http://www.paulgraham.com/popular.html, at least with regards to programming languages: ,------------------------------------------------------------------------- | A friend of mine once told an eminent operating systems expert that he | wanted to design a really good programming language. The expert told him | that it would be a waste of time, that programming languages don't | become popular or unpopular based on their merits, and so no matter how | good his language was, no one would use it. At least, that was what had | happened to the language he had designed. `------------------------------------------------------------------------- And just like I try to spell the word about amazing PicoLisp with this email, I wrote an Org-mode article in the student magazine of my former German distance university with the title ,------------------------------------------------------ | Self-organization with Org-mode for distance students `------------------------------------------------------ (in German) Its in ,------------------------------------------- | "SprachRohr"-Ausgabe 04/2012 FernUni Hagen `------------------------------------------- and the cover can be seen here: http://www.fernstudis.de/node/1203 unfortunately only the cover, since download is restricted to immatriculated students, but I reached some 50-60k readers with this article and recieved very positive feedback, I cite from an anonymous fellow distance student: ,---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | [...] ich gehöre normalerweise nicht zu den Leserbriefschreibern, aber hier | muss ich einfach mal ein ganz großes Lob loswerden: Vielen Dank für den | Artikel über Emacs Org-Mode - der erste Artikel [...] der mich wirklich | weiterbringt und ganz sehr zum "Weiterforschen" anregt. Org-Mode scheint | genau das Werkzeug zu sein, nach dem ich lange gesucht habe. `---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (in English more or less: "normally I don't write reader comments, but Org-mode seems exactly the tool I was looking for and I feel very motivated to learn more about it after reading your article") So maybe there are ways to reach more people with less effort than in one-to-one conversion talks? Although, even with 50k readers, I will of course never know if I really achieved a single conversion. -- cheers, Thorsten