Re: Making Emacs more friendly to newcomers

[Arthur Miller]

Drew Adams <address@hidden> writes:

> FWIW, I really do NOT think that anyone who's
> been involved with Emacs development has little
> care for newbies or for making Emacs flexible and
> easy to use.

I do NOT think something like that either Drew, nor did
I state that, just to be clear. Emacs is a prime example of flexibility,
sure! I wrote, Emacs is super-adaptable. Ease of use can be debatable,
what is easy for you and me does not necessary mean easy for somebody else.

> The opposite is the case - everyone I've ever see
> take an interest in Emacs cares very much about
> usability, discoverability, etc.

I didn't say Eamcs devs don't care about it either, I am sorry if I sound
to you like that.

Usability, discoverability and other user friendliness have many faces.
What I tried to say, is that that Emacs might have used some kind of a
facelift to reflect more of a time we live in.

Yes, sure, there are examples were people have not scratched under the
surface of Emacs, and lots of people use it with out-of-the-box
settings. But it wasn't point that it is not possible, or that there are
no users who does not do something with Emacs. The point is that
many users are not finding Emacs that useful, and are probably not even
trying it or switching after very short period to something else because
of Emacs not conforming to some basic expectations they happened to have.

Sure, one can never please everyone, that is just how life is. No matter
how one make something or how good one try, there will always be someone
who will want it differently, but nowdays, there are some basics that
most software seems to follow, and some people seems to be lost of those
are not met.