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*scratch* considered harmful
From: |
Per Starback |
Subject: |
*scratch* considered harmful |
Date: |
15 Nov 2001 04:33:28 +0100 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.1.50 |
Many times I've seen beginners start typing their text in *scratch*
instead of visiting a file. Eventually they will save it, and then
give a file name. That the scratch buffer says "If you want to create
a file, ..." is somehow not enough. Sometimes they don't realize that
the initial text in *scratch* is part of the buffer, so it will be
left in the file they are writing.
Having a scratch buffer for lisp evaluation is sometimes useful for
an expert, but not for a beginner.
The initial splash screens on the other hand contain stuff that *is*
useful for the beginner. Unfortunately the information there
disappears immediately when the beginner types something.
So my radical suggestion is this: If inhibit-startup-message is nil,
then create a special readonly startup buffer containing whatever you
wish to show the user and make that buffer the initial buffer.
(Preferrably it would tell you to visit a file instead of just beeping
"Buffer is read-only" if you try to type characters.) Do no special
splash stuff.
Create the *scratch* buffer too, but don't make it the initial buffer.
If inhibit-startup-message is true, then I suggest no change from the
current behaviour.
- *scratch* considered harmful,
Per Starback <=
- Re: *scratch* considered harmful, Eli Zaretskii, 2001/11/15
- Re: *scratch* considered harmful, Dhruva Krishnamurthy, 2001/11/15
- Re: *scratch* considered harmful, Eli Zaretskii, 2001/11/15
- Re: *scratch* considered harmful, Richard Stallman, 2001/11/15
- Re: *scratch* considered harmful, Dhruva Krishnamurthy, 2001/11/19
- Re: *scratch* considered harmful, Eli Zaretskii, 2001/11/19
- Re: *scratch* considered harmful, Jason Rumney, 2001/11/19
- Re: *scratch* considered harmful, Jason Rumney, 2001/11/20
- Re: *scratch* considered harmful, Richard Stallman, 2001/11/20
- Re: *scratch* considered harmful, Jason Rumney, 2001/11/22