Re: Changes for emacs 28

[Philip K.]

Göktuğ Kayaalp <self@gkayaalp.com> writes:

> On 2020-09-09 14:22 +03, Gregory Heytings via Emacs development discussions. 
> <emacs-devel@gnu.org> wrote:
>> Would it not be better to have a "guided tour" (something like C-h t,
>> but shorter and more "modern") for first-time users (those without a
>> .emacs / .emacs.d)?  This is quite common in "modern" software, so it
>> would not surprise anyone.
> [...]
>> (In fact, it would perhaps make sense to create a few guided tours,
>> with an initial question "Are you a programmer? a scientist? a
>> teacher? a writer?" with which the set of options could be narrowed.)
>
> Why not instead just have nicer introductory material? E.g. videos that
> walk through initial customisation for different setups, that discuss
> and explain things, talk about tangents.
>
> This actually is produced by the community, but it’s scattered around
> YouTube.  We could ask prolific producers to prepare 20-30min videos for
> some particular setup, showing how to get going with Emacs in that
> particular niche.

Why 20-30 minutes? I think limiting it to 2-3 minutes for specific
problems would be more helpful. After all, a video that demonstrates
one thing well (search, buffer or window management, etc.) is better
than mentioning a few topics over the timespan of half an hour. I hope
I'm not the only one who tends to forget most of the points made in a
longer video, and often gives up half-way through if it gets too
boring.

> The wizard idea from another thread is nice, but I’m not a fan of a
> whole guided tour.  Most probably people would want to skip it.  A
> blocker just as your first boot a program is not nice.

I think I've suggested this before, but a manually invoked wizard could
be interesting. Typing "M-x intro" and getting a selection of
"interactive tutorials" -- again short and with a progress indicator --
would probably help a lot of people learn the basics quicker than
reading the manual or C-h t.

-- 
        Philip K.