Re: [emacs-humanities] Emacs as a Unix citizen

[Alan Davis]

>From the outset, my journey with Emacs, I was blessed with an abundance of
free time.  I needed documentation; tex-info is a genius innovation that
enabled me to dig in without access to any other resources.  The built-in
tutorial was the other key piece; it took mere minutes to get the basic
keybindings under my fingers, a crucial element, for me.

Probably most striking among the features of Emacs has been the ability to
write a very simple function---little more than a macro, or, actually, a
macro---and assign it to a key.  The EXTENSIBLE editor.  I love this
feature just as I love the concept of Free Software and Copyleft.

In the early 1990s, a much simpler Emacs infrastructure was accessible
enough to me, as a new comer to computers, to explore and set up an init (
.emacs) file with  useful keybindings that have remained, over the years,
galvanized into muscle memory,.  As a somewhat naive user, I tapped mainly
the most superficial capabilities.  WIth some help over the Internet, I was
eventually able to write some functions that still serve well today, both
simple and more complicated.

These various starter kits and reifications of Emacs seem to me to be
distractions.  I am devoted to Org-mode; as with Emacs itself, I have
gotten my head around some of the most salient features of Org-mode, while
the (to me) more arcane capabilities remain on the periphery.   Ironically,
while my journey began during a time of few expectations and freedom to
explore, I no longer feel comfortable to leave my cherished work flow, and
when I try to install---for example---projectile, I soon give up, and
return to my clunky old ways of old.  The abilties of the programmers who
have developed that pantheon of packages for Emacs are remarkable.  Some of
them are weaving their ways into my world, as long as my time-tested muscle
memory remains unassailed.

By any name, the tex-info documentation---whether "manual" (a descriptor
that seems to hearken to the world of print books) or "pages"---has been
extremely valuable, and not only for Emacs.  One other remarkable resource
that has eased my way is the Emacs Lisp Intro.  However, I have not learned
to write tex-info.  This is perhaps one way I---as a functional
non-programmer---might contribute to the Free Software movement that is so
dear to me.  I am saddened that among the incredibly diverse new Free
Software programs that are available for GNU/Linux, many do not come with
TeX-Info documentation.  In my mind, one of the geniuses of the Unix
software model has been the modular concept, and the inclusion of Man
pages.   Tex-info documentation is more helpful to the user like me.
Anymore, by the way, I am finding the TLDR model very, very helpful.  Can
this be adapted for Emacs, along the lines of the more substantial TeX-Info
documentation?

My 2*¢* worth,

Alan Davis
I am a na, many elements of which

On Tue, Jan 5, 2021 at 6:52 AM Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:

> > From: "Paul W. Rankin" <pwr@bydasein.com>
> > Cc: Oliver Taylor <olivertaylor@me.com>, emacs-humanities@gnu.org
> > Date: Sat, 02 Jan 2021 20:07:28 +1000
> >
> > On Thursday, 31 Dec 2020, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > > A nit: please don't use "info pages" when you mean the Emacs manuals.
> > > Unlike "man pages", which are really a collection of more-or-less
> > > unrelated short "pages", the Emacs manuals (like any other good Info
> > > manual) are complete books, with TOC, cross-references, footnotes,
> > > indices, etc.
> >
> > But one could still dive into the "pages" of a complete book ;)
>
> Only if the book has disintegrated ;-)
>
>

-- 

      "This ignorance about the limits of the earth's ability to absorb
       pollutants should be reason enough for caution in the release
       of polluting substances."
                   ---Meadows et al.   1972.  Limits to Growth
<https://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/digital/publishing/meadows/ltg/>.
(p. 81)