Interactive guide for new users (was: Re: Gather a list of confusions beginner tend to have)

[Stefan Kangas]

Yuan Fu <casouri@gmail.com> writes:

> I think there are a few configurations that a beginner would want to
> change right after he starts Emacs, usually very basic settings. If
> you think it’s a good idea, I can go to reddit and ask what people
> missed when then started using Emacs for the first few minutes.
>
> FWIW, here is a demo of the guide: https://youtu.be/0qMskTAR2aw
>
> The demo inserts some configurations into ~/.emacs.d/init.el after completion.

Such a beginners guide (wizard) is an excellent idea.  And it is great
that you actually have code.  Let's see what others think, but I will
optimistically add my comments below.

To my mind, your draft has about the right amount of complexity and
options, but we should consider carefully what to include.

I propose to consider if any of these are suitable for inclusion:

- scroll-conservatively, visible-bell
- desktop-save-mode, savehist-mode, save-place-mode, midnight-mode, uniquify
- auto-image-file-mode, display-time-mode, show-paren-mode
- (f)ido-mode, company-mode

It's a slippery slope, but if done carefully one could perhaps add just
a few more things without weighing it down too much.  Taking out the
toggle to disable the menu bar and tool bar would save some space.

> Others has described the out-of-the-box experience of doom Emacs, it
> seems to me that such job is better done by a “distribution” of Emacs
> than by vanilla Emacs. OTHO, vanilla Emacs could add a tiny guide like
> I proposed to more or less improve the life for those who started
> Emacs without reading any tutorial on the internet.

The idea of profiles/custom themes is orthogonal to the guide you are
proposing, IMO.  You could set a profile and then tweak the options it
gives you.