Re: Summary and next steps for (package-initialize)

[Yuri Khan]

On Sun, Aug 20, 2017 at 11:37 PM, Alex <address@hidden> wrote:

> There could be a link (and perhaps keybinding) on the splash
> screen/tutorial, where Emacs could ask the user a few questions and
> create an init file for the user. Possible questions include:
>
> Would you like this file in ~/ or ~/.emacs.d (.emacs vs init.el)?
>
> Would you like to change some defaults? (This could help out with the
> (IMO correct) notion that Emacs has some poor defaults while leaving
> those alone for users that don't use this template.)
>
> Would you like to use a separate file for `custom-file'?
>
> Would you like to set up the package system?
>
>
> I believe that this would be a step forward in accommodating new users.

This amounts to asking the new user to perform customization up front.
A new user will not have enough knowledge to answer these questions.
Further, he or she may feel intimidated and choose a different editor,
one that works out of the box.

It is better to have reasonably sane defaults and let the user
customize when he or she is ready.