Re: [emacs-humanities] Emacs as a Unix citizen

[Protesilaos Stavrou]

On 2020-12-28, 11:28 -0800, Oliver Taylor via Emacs-humanities 
<emacs-humanities@gnu.org> wrote:

> I thought Prot's comments on how Emacs fits in to a Unix-centric
> workflow[1] were interesting, and I thought I'd share my take on it.
>
> 1: https://protesilaos.com/codelog/2020-12-28-comment-unix-vs-emacs/
>
> Different computing environments have different interaction methods. The iPad
> is one, the GUI (mouse and keyboard) is another, UNIX yet another---Firefox
> works the same way everything else in the GUI works, sed works the same way
> everything in UNIX works. It is tempting to think that software that is a
> 'good citizen' of its environment should follow the conventions of that
> environment, and for the most part I enthusiastically agree. Under that line
> of thinking Emacs seems strange indeed, it does not follow the strict
> conventions of a GUI, nor of UNIX. But Emacs is, in fact, less a citizen of
> those environments and more an environment unto itself. In my view this is the
> source of the confusion: to use Emacs is to (in effect) embed one computing
> environment within another (somewhat like VNC-ing into a Windows machine from
> an iPad). Switching between Firefox, Terminal, and Emacs requires three
> completely different interaction methods, unique to each program. I can
> certainly understand why one would not want to do this but it does not bother
> me, and allows me to use the best tool for the job at hand (which reminds me
> somewhat of the vim koan of Master Wq and the Windows developer[2]).
>
> 2: https://sanctum.geek.nz/arabesque/vim-koans/
>
> Personally, my answer to the question 'Why use Emacs?' is:
>
> * Ease, and completeness, of customization and extension.
>
> I imagine Emacs users nodding in agreement with this statement and non-Emacs
> users scratching their heads in confusion. Emacs can seem complex, but once
> you learn how to customize and extend it an enormous (and highly accessible)
> landscape opens up. The sheer breadth and depth of the possibilities to
> customize and extend are what makes Emacs unique, and allows Emacs to
> transcend being 'just' a text editor.

Thank you Oliver for sharing your thoughts!

I believe in a previous message to this list you wrote about your
experiences as a newcomer to Emacs.  I am paraphrasing here but the idea
was that you found it difficult at first, until you eventually got the
chance to do some extra reading, which gave you the confidence to set up
Emacs the way you wanted.

So my question is what helped you get past that initial phase?  Did you
start from scratch and read the official manual?  Was the built-in
tutorial helpful?  Perhaps you copied code from some other user or
relied on a preconfigured setup?

I just wish to learn more about this because I feel there are multiple
pathways that can lead someone to Emacs.  Maybe we can identify patterns
that could help us compile a list of valuable resources or an FAQ that
we could recommend to members of this list, while always respecting the
values of free software.

All the best,
Prot

-- 
Protesilaos Stavrou
protesilaos.com