emacs-devel
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: (emacs) Intro [was: Making Emacs popular again with a video]


From: excalamus
Subject: Re: (emacs) Intro [was: Making Emacs popular again with a video]
Date: Tue, 19 May 2020 16:14:23 +0200 (CEST)

Is this something I should continue investing time in?  

Before posting a revision, I've been awaiting feedback on:

* What *defines* an Emacs? Is it "the Emacs idea", as I've called it, that each 
key press is transparently associated with a function?

* What sets GNU Emacs apart, specifically, from other Emacs?

* Did I clarify the reasoning behind the sections that caused confusion?  I 
intend to revise those sections and want to be sure that their focus is correct 
and that it is the merely the wording, and not the purpose of the section, 
which needs revision.

First draft copied below for your convenience:

> Welcome to GNU Emacs!
>
> An Emacs, short for "Editor MACroS", is a kind of text editor built
> from the idea that each key calls a tiny program (or macro). This idea
> proves powerful in practice, enabling far more than simple insertion
> and deletion of characters.  With it, you can operate on words or
> lines, sentences or paragraphs, even whole pages.  You can navigate
> within or between documents, automate tasks, and control subprocesses;
> all with the press of a key!  GNU Emacs is the GNU project's
> incarnation of the Emacs idea.
>
> GNU Emacs is built for introspection and extensibility.
>
> "Introspection" means GNU Emacs has self-knowledge.  Every aspect of
> the system is documented and, because of the Emacs idea, that
> information is easy to access.  The documentation may be general, like
> this introduction.  It may be instructive, like the tutorials that
> are included.  The documentation even reaches down to the source code
> itself!  All of this is right at your fingertips.  See Help.
>
> "Extensibility" means behavior can be altered and improved.  Users can
> customize their environment, from keyboard shortcuts to color themes
> and most everything in-between.  See Customization.  The extensibility
> goes beyond simple customization: new commands can be created and
> applied in real-time.  New commands can be bundled in packages and
> shared with the diverse Emacs community. Most of the commands in Emacs
> are written in Lisp, with a few exceptions in C.  See Emacs Lisp
> Intro(eintr) if you want to learn Emacs Lisp programming.
>
> GNU Emacs is used by authors and researchers, as well as programmers.
> It has seen active development for more than 30 years; it is a
> heritage as much as a community project.  We love GNU Emacs because we
> feel that no other editing environment rewards sustained user
> investment quite like it.  We hope that will be your experience, too.





reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]