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RE: Issues with emacs


From: Drew Adams
Subject: RE: Issues with emacs
Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2012 09:07:57 -0700

> > Improving the use of menus and improving doc/help access is 
> > approachable by nearly anyone.  Menu implementation is a bit
> > complicated, and so are keymaps. But once past the initial
> > hurdle it is not hard to make a concrete implementation 
> > improvement/proposal.  Whether a particular proposal gets
> > adopted is another story.  But your chances are much higher
> > with code than with abstract expectations or whining about
> > "modern" and "nowadays" this or that.
> 
> Ups - I just hope that this refers to me: I definitely did 
> not "whine that emacs is not modern enough", nor did I want to
> complain tat emacs is not "modern" enough for "nowadays" computer
> users.

No, Rainer, not at all.  I was not referring to anything said by anyone in this
thread.  I was speaking generally, based on lots of threads and other
discussions over the years.

And let me be clearer: There is _nothing wrong with complaining_, whether or not
someone has a positive suggestion or, better, a proposed code change - as long
as readers are respected as people and not insulted or attacked personally,
obviously.

The closer feedback is to a concrete suggestion, code patch, or reasoned
technical argument, the more useful it is likely to be.  That's all.

No one, including me, should discourage feedback that does not necessarily make
a concrete proposal.  Complaints, no matter how expressed or how vague, have
their place and can be constructive in the end - and no matter how they might be
received.

The point is not for anyone to avoid complaining.  It is just to suggest that if
you _can_ be concrete, give reasons, and maybe even suggest code changes, then
the chances of consideration generally improve.  Just advice/suggestion.

And as I tried to make clear, even a well reasoned, concrete proposal based on a
good idea and with a clean code patch is far from a guarantee of acceptance.
Just because you express your idea well and you are convinced that it represents
an improvement, that does not mean that others will see things the same way. ;-)
Don't take such rejection personally, and don't let it dissuade you from
continuing to try to improve things.

Those who decide have been wrong about many things over the years.  And they
have also been right about many things.  If they are wrong about about a
suggestion you make, so be it.




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