On Sun, 26 Jul 2015 01:50:21 -0700, Rustom Mody wrote: > On Sunday, July 26, 2015 at 2:06:00 PM UTC+5:30, Marko Rauhamaa wrote: >> Rustom Mody : >> >> > Emacs 'tries to be everything' in exactly the same way that a >> > 'general purpose programming language' is too general and by >> > pretending to solve all problems actually solves none (until you hire >> > a programmer). >> >> Emacs isn't too general. It's just right. >> >> > Problem with emacs (culture) is that its aficionados assume that a >> > superb conceptual design trumps technological relevance, >> >> It's relevant to me every day, for business and pleasure. >> >> > [Did you notice that you used the locutions 'M-$', 'M-x'? What sense >> > does this 80s terminology make to an emacs uninitiate in 2015? >> >> They can be initiated in mere seconds to that esoteric knowledge. > > You are being obtuse Marko! > > Yeah that 'M-' is what everyone calls Alt can be conveyed in a few > seconds But there are a hundred completely useless pieces of > comtemporary-to-emacs inconsistency: > - What everyone calls a window, emacs calls a frame - And what emacs > calls a window, everyone calls a pane - What everyone does with C-x > emacs does with C-w (and woe betide if you mix that up) > - What everyone calls head (of a list) emacs calls Car (Toyota?) > > >> > From seeing my 20-year-olf students suffer all this >> >> What do your students suffer from? The beauty of the matter is that >> they can use any editor they like. They don't have to like or use >> emacs. >> >> (In some shops you actually virtually *have* to use Eclipse or Visual >> Studio or the some such thing. That *is* painful.) >> >> > combined with the hopelessness of convincing the emacs folks that we >> > are in 2015, not 1980, >> >> What do you need to convince emacs folks about? Emacs isn't perfect at >> everything, but the emacs developers have kept it admirably up to date. >> It has been following the quirks of Java, git and MS Exchange even if >> it has been an uphill battle. >> >> > I conclude this is a losing battle >> >> What would you like to achieve, exactly? > > Some attitude correction? > That emacs starts its tutorial showing how to use C-p and C-n for what > everyone uses arrows is bad enough. > That the arrow-keys are later found to work quite alright is even worse > and speaks of a ridiculous attitude
emacs is a great operating system - the only thing it lacks is a good text editor ;-) -- Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. -- Robert Frost, "The Death of the Hired Man" -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list