Re: new emacs book from larry ayers

[Miles Bader]

Bill Richter <richter@conley.math.nwu.edu> writes:
> Emacs should be *easily* usable by folks who know almost no Emacs.
> It's utterly absolutely absurd for Emacs folks to tell the newbies:
> 
> "Until you learn a bunch of Control-this & Meta-that sequences, and
>  Emacs Lisp to boot, you're a chucklehead who's not crossing our radar
>  screen.  Come back when you become a true computer weenie!"

That's not what newbies are told, they're told `use the menus until you
learn to do more.'  This is a perfectly reasonable approach, since the
menus are by-and-large (1) straightforward to use, (2) familiar, and
(3) a good way to learn many keybindings.

I realize that you don't like the menus, because they're slow and
clunky, but frankly, you're not a newbie.  Most newbies I've observed
_like_ using the menus, and often continue to use them even when they've
learned other ways to do things.

> Anyway, C-w/M-w/C-y is a much worse interface than C-x/C-c/C-v

No it's not.  I suppose that you actually mean `less familiar'
when you say `worse,' but please use less pejorative terms.

> which is what folks are already used to.

-Miles
-- 
Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra.  Suddenly it flips over,
pinning you underneath.  At night the ice weasels come.  --Nietzsche