Re: Why does the tutorial talk about C-n/C-p etc?

[Phillip Lord]

Clément Pit--Claudel <address@hidden> writes:

> On 03/13/2016 01:27 PM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> That would fit most of the tutorial.
>> 
>> Things that are truly indispensable are mostly those which the readers
>> already know: basic cursor motion, inserting a character and deleting
>> a character.  The only other necessary stiff is C-x C-f and C-x C-s,
>> but those can be replaced by menu-bar commands.
>
> Hey Eli,
>
> Here are a few things that I struggled with when I started using Emacs
> (phrased in terms of concepts that I was already familiar with)
>
> * Opening and saving a file
> * Copying (or cutting) and pasting
> * Undoing, and in particular the notion of undoing an undo
> * Using C-u as a prefix
> * Searching (and replacing)
> * The notion of major and minor modes

I think many of these are essential. The tutorial needs to indicate
where Emacs is different from rest of the world. So, keyboard-centric
control, that it has pasting, but not cutting and copying (or rather
that these are implicit), viewing one file twice, that files are not
files but buffers, that windows are frames. Finishing off with modes and
how to install new ones.

> One final idea: maybe the tutorial could showcase more of Emacs' fancy
> features? Like syntax highlighting, spell checking, image support,
> indentation, and similar things? Right now it's a plain text buffer in
> fundamental mode.

In this day and age, these are not really fancy, but basic technology.
Fortunately, most of them just work.

Phil