Re: "like other editors" [was: Re: Poll about proposed change in DEL (aka Backspace) and Delete],

[Le Wang]

On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 11:46 AM, Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> wrote:
> The most customizable editor and arguments and fights about an easily
> settable default?
> Ironic...

You are proposing a new flame-war where grumpy old men complain that
they have to now add a "emacscality" setting to their init file, and
therefore Free software will lose and "M$", "MS", "Word",  "Apple"
will win!

The striking thing to me about this whole "debate" - and I stress the
quotes - is that there is a distinct class of Emacs users, who having
climbed the steep learning curve to "master" Emacs are very interested
in keeping the barrier to entry high.  Presumably, they do this to
keep themselves feeling special that they've acquired the Emacs skill.

They don't even bother to craft arguments for their position on UI
design basis; of which there are few, including Alan Mackenzie's in
the link you posted.  All they do is try to appeal to our love of Free
software by trotting out strawmen like "Word", "MS" (or more absurdly
"M$"), and "Apple".

This is a user interface issue.  Why can't we just present arguments
as such?  I've layed out a specific use-case where this change will
surely help new users.  Yes, NEW USERS.  They should be the focus.
Not people who already know how to customize their Emacs.

-- 
Le