Re: RTFM Was: M-x goto-line binding

[Jari Aalto+mail.emacs]

* Fri 2001-01-05 Eli Zaretskii <eliz@is.elta.co.il> gnu.emacs.help
* 
<http://search.dejanews.com/msgid.xp?MID=%3C3A55CC9D.A8CF3811@is.elta.co.il%3E&format=threaded>
| Please explain why do you think Emacs is not usable as a text editor, out of
| the box. 
| So what is missing?

[Feature request: crospoed to gnu.emacs.bug]

Presumption: Emacs power users (us here in group) will survive and
can accomodate with the change.

Now I propose a radical change starting from the 21.x release.

    The first buffer that is displayed should be *text* and
    made in text-mode

Don'ya all cry there! I know, the is not what existing Emacs users
expect, but this is exactly the one little thing that would make it
"look like an familiar editor" to the first user that starts Emacs.

    The buffer "*scratch*" and "lisp interaction mode" scares hell
    out of all of my students and it's diffucult to explain 
    to anybody why it should be lisp they see first.

    99% of all who start Emacs the first time would like to see
    simple "text editor".

    They can later customise what they want.

We Emacs users can accomodate with this shift, just piece of lisp
to the .emacs, no problem. Annoying? Sure, but every Emacs release
changes something. This isn't that bad change if we think the
first time users.

Jari