Re: Emacs for new users

[Per Starbäck]

2009/11/23 Stephen Eilert <address@hidden>:
>
> On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 4:35 PM, Les Harris <address@hidden> wrote:
>>
>> Lennart Borgman <address@hidden> writes:
>>
>> > I think
>> > we should have to move to adhere better to existing GUI standards (CUA
>> > for example, but that is a hot potato).
>>
>> First let's get the tautologies out of the way: Emacs is a complex
>> system with many features and extreme extensibility.
>>
>> With that axiom in mind I would argue that any attempt to add a veneer
>> of simplicity over the top is doing a disservice to would-be emacs
>> users.
>
> The extensibility part comes with need. As users become more familiar with
> Emacs, they might want to extend it to improve their workflow.
>
> However, to reach that point, it is necessary that they become familiar with
> it to begin with. I don't think anyone is suggesting that Emacs is "dumbed
> down". Rather, the idea should be to make it easier for new users to
> transfer their existing skills.

Exactly. I don't think any of the suggestions I've had (or anyone
else) is about dumbing down.
It's changes I think are good anyway, but that might be especially
good for beginners. And also I think
it's worthwhile to think about beginners when deciding what the
default should be for things
that are easy to change. Beginners shouldn't need a special beginner
friendly .emacs, but should
be OK without one.

As for CUA I just thought of something. What do you think about having
s-x, s-c, s-v, s-z do the CUA
thing in Emacs? Many people have keyboards with C-, s- and M- modifier
keys. Maybe it would be acceptable
for those used to these bindings that in Emacs you have to use another
modifier key with "the normal stuff"
since the usual "Alt key" is used by "special emacs commands"?