Re: A proposal for a friendlier Emacs

[Nicholas Savage]

I like the idea of a configuration wizard, but I agree that I wouldn't want to 
have to deal with it when logging into a new machine or using emacs -Q. 

What if the installer created a file somewhere in Emacs etc folder, such as 
`trigger_conf_wizard'. Then, Emacs checks if that file exists or not. If it 
does exist, run the configuration wizard and subsequently delete the file. If 
it doesn't exist, skip the wizard. This way too if you're fooling around with 
your .emacs, or testing the vanilla configuration, you won't have to worry 
about the wizard or figuring out the switch for it.

On Thu, Sep 17, 2020, at 08:24, Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
>    > It shouldn't be super intrusive if there is no .emacs, since it is
>    > quite common to fire up Emacs without a .emacs.
> 
>    I think we should find a compromise here. If an experienced user stats 
>    emacs without a .emacs present, he/she may disable this somehow (maybe 
>    with --no-splash ?)
> 
> I think that would be annoying -- if I log in on a new machine that
> I've never used, I'm sure I wont remeber passing any special switches
> to Emacs to start it.
> 
> Why not just have it on the splash screen if there is no .emacs; and
> if there is a .emacs remove that blurb.  We could add one or two lines
> along the lines of M-x recover-session:
> 
>    If an Emacs session crashed recently, type M-x recover-session RET
>    to recover the files you were editing.
> 
> E.g., (actual wording left for someone else) if there is no .emacs, we
> show:
> 
>   You do not have a personal Emacs configuration file, you can go
>   [Vanilla], start the [configuration wizard], or try Emacs with a
>   different theme [different-theme-mode].
> 
> And if there is, we skip it.  And have some means of getting to the
> wizard from the menu-bar, maybe even a way of selecting a list of
> themes there too..
> 
> This wouldn't change how Emacs behaves, but still allow new or
> experienced users to fiddle.
> 
> 
>