RE: Emacs learning curve

[Drew Adams]

> > It depends on the application and what the user is doing, 
> > where s?he "naturally" places her point of view.  In some
> > graphics domains it sometimes makes sense to take the point
> > of view of the paper (object) and not the view port; in other
> > contexts, vice versa.
> >
> > "The human" is neither the view port nor the paper, and 
> > can identify with either, whichever is more convenient/pertinent
> > to the task at hand.
> 
> The human can identify with the paper?  What drug does that?

Ever drag the page around in Adobe Reader or Google Maps or Google Earth?

When you drag an object you are identifying with the object, not the window.
Dragging is a kind of scrolling.

The point is that both points of view can be useful and both are used. The
wikipedia page for Scrolling refers to both in its very first paragraph:

 "In computer graphics, movies, television, and other kinetic
  displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a
  monitor or display.  Scrolling, as such, does not change the
  layout of the text or pictures, or but incrementally moves
  (pans or tilts) the user's view across what is apparently a
  larger image that is not wholly seen." -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrolling

Sliding the text (first sentence) vs moving the view (second sentence).  Neither
has a monopoly wrt scrolling.  They are two different vantage points.  And
sometimes the scrolling affordances or tools we use emphasize one or the other.

* A scroll bar typically is associated with the view, not the paper: when you
drag it down, the view moves down (and the paper up).

* A hand pointer typically is associated with the paper, not the view; when you
drag it down, the paper moves down (and the view up).

There is nothing new (and nothing controversial) about any of this.  It is as
old as the hills.  What drug makes you see things only one way?