Re: Transient Mark Mode on by default

[Mike Mattie]

On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:11:40 +0100
"paul r" <address@hidden> wrote:

> 2008/3/24, Sascha Wilde <address@hidden>:
> 
> > To be honest: I don't care to much about that kind of people.
> > There is a fair amount of software out there to suit there
> > (limited?) needs -- please don't try to make Emacs just another one
> > of these.
> >
> >  I like Emacs for being driven by "doing the right thing" and by
> > that aiming to become the perfect tool from hackers for hackers[0].
> >
> >  By all means: educate those who are willing to learn:  don't make
> > it unnecessarily hard for them and point them in the right
> > direction, e.g. by pointing out that customization is crucial to
> > make Emacs "yours".
> >
> >  But _pretty please_ don't choose the defaults on what joe average
> >  programmers would expect.
> 
> My point of view is that newbies are precious resource in any project,
> and neglecting them is dangerous. For many reasons, emacs would
> benefit from having a greater number of beginners and casual users.
> They are the connection between inside hackers and the outside world
> [1]. A lot of things happen outside emacs world, RMS had an
> interesting post about that recently.
> Another point is that newbies tend to spend a lot of time expressing
> what they like or not like on any project, and more generally
> discussing about choices of software. That way, they maintain a
> dynamic activity visible from people that do not know emacs yet.
> Finally, their point of view might be biased by common software
> practices, but at least it is not biased by many many years of
> emacs-only usage :)
> 
> I do not see any serious threat to have emacs turned into a notepad,
> an eclipse, a gedit or a kate, just because its default settings make
> it more accessible to the mere mortal.

1. Emacs use does not confer immortality or superiority.

2. If I want to use eclipse, gedit, or kate, I can start them. I don't
   see how emulation makes Emacs better. In fact I use Eclispe in
   conjunction with Emacs already, solely for RAD tools and source
   analysis that Emacs lacks.

   Making Emacs highlight like eclipse doesn't mean a dingle, Making
   Emacs analyze C, C++, and Java, like other tools do, does.

   Those are the kind of features that compel adoption no matter what
   your opinion of their aesthetics. Solving hard problems is a sure
   way to a larger user base.

3. Newbies aren't a precious resource until donation is mandatory. 
   people who contribute patches are a precious resource.
   Your statement is sound though, IMHO, because contributors all started
   as newbies.

> -- Paul
> 
> [1] btw, in this world, people start counting from 1, not from 0 ;)

irrelevant.
 
>

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