Re: Question about completion behavior

[Ergus]

Hi Po:

On Thu, Mar 10, 2022 at 08:42:55AM +0800, Po Lu wrote:
> Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:
>
> > Then again, it's only by enabling it by default that we'll get a clear
> > picture of which changes are annoyances are which aren't.
> >
> > So I'd start by changing the default on `master` and after a month or
> > so, collect feedback to decide how to go about adding it: either by just
> > changing the behavior willy-nilly, or introduce it but add an option to
> > revert to the old behavior, or leave the default unchanged but add an
> > option to get the new behavior, ...
>
> This really doesn't warrant month-long experiments.  Larger changes like
> variable-pitch modelines might, but IMHO this is too small a change.
If it is small, then should be easier to do. Maybe?

Bigger changes on defaults are actually almost impossible to agree for
what I have seen these years. That's why I only try small ones now.

This changes make the new user's experience consistent and just a bit
more dynamic. Ex: going for the 'visible alternative is such a subtle
change that 50% of the users may not even note it.

Old users usually know how to add 1 line to their config if they really
feel annoyed and want to revert. But most of them use
ido/vertico/selectrum/ivy or something else (for a reason btw).

> I would prefer just adding an option to get the new behavior, and asking
> people to try that.
(Please ignore the next part if you want as it is totally off-topic)

One of the main issues in Emacs (we have discussed in this same mailing
list several times) is that communication with the community and
external developers is not very efficient. I won't expect emacs to be a
rockstart, but at least a country artist with some seasonal fashion from
time to time.

On every release the NEWS file is so long and most changes are cryptic
for external users; the manual is usually more difficult to explore
(almost impossible to find, or search in for a new user) and the first
impression is in general very bad. I have new students every year and I
try them to use emacs, after a while I notice that they only "stand it"
because (and while) I insist, some of them try external inits from
github to start, some others try customizations like spacemacs or
similes... but at the end all of them end using vim, vscode and so on.

Many of the defaults are very "archaic"... and some are like that
because of hardware limitations from 20-30 years ago. As it is not on
github, contributing, feature requests and issues report system is very
unfamiliar for any <30 years old user and the releases take so long and
contain so many changes (most of them hidden by default) that we still
have users that use the external packages like linum or
fill-column-indicator...

In conclusion we don't have any effective way to "to ask the people to
try" things that maybe they need.

> Thanks.
Best,
Ergus