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Re: Default Emacs keybindings (was: Re: Menu suggestion)
From: |
David Kastrup |
Subject: |
Re: Default Emacs keybindings (was: Re: Menu suggestion) |
Date: |
27 Apr 2004 13:25:13 +0200 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3.50 |
Thien-Thi Nguyen <address@hidden> writes:
> David Kastrup <address@hidden> writes:
>
> As long as the superuser can't with a good conscience throw
> Emacs at his users, he is not free to use the editor he
> prefers.
>
> because naked emacs may be seen as an unkindness in some cultures,
> the crafty superuser throws instead an emacs wrapped in session-,
> site-, or user-specific customizations.
It is not only in a closed shop that my expertise is appreciated.
For example, I am a frequent poster in comp.text.tex and other Usenet
groups. I can start advice with "if you use Emacs, it is a matter
of..." I can't start advice with "if you happen to have a service
contract with me and I installed and maintain your copy of Emacs, you
could..."
It is the difference between "with Emacs, you could" and "with my
Emacs, I can". The latter is gloating rather than helping.
And I don't think we should strive for superuser lock-in: painful
experiences whenever users switch between administrators. Emacs
should by and large be delivered in a useful state for everyone
without the need for serious reconfiguration. The better we can
achieve that goal, the more universal Emacs experience becomes.
> If somebody asks me about a text manipulation problem, and I tell
> him "just use this one-liner in Emacs" and he says "Forget it. I
> don't have a week to spare. How do I do this in KEdit?", this
> ultimately forces me to acquire skills with inferior tools in
> order to kludge along.
>
> or you could write the one-liner into a file, add five lines of
> comment and/or docstring, and place the file in some shared
> directory where it can be accessed in the future, and studied and
> improved as time permits. this can be done by all users.
They will still need to use Emacs.
> The question "is it really worth it?" should, if possible, not
> come up again and again.
>
> IMHO, that kind of question is always pertinent. the answer
> may gradually shift from no to yes, as the environment (which
> includes machines, regular users, and any superusers floating
> in the vicinity) changes. if the answer does not shift and
> the superusers floating in the vicinity do not effect change,
> that says more about those superusers than the question.
Superusers stand on the shoulders of developers. On the shoulder of
giants, even dwarfs can look far.
--
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum
Re: Default Emacs keybindings (was: Re: Menu suggestion), Richard Stallman, 2004/04/27