Re: Emacs history, and "Is Emacs difficult to learn?"

[Emanuel Berg]

Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com> writes:

> | They used a manual someone had written which showed how to
> | extend Emacs, but didn't say it was a programming. So the
> | secretaries, who believed they couldn't do programming,
> | weren't scared off. They read the manual, discovered they
> | could do useful things and they learned to program.
>
> The magic phrases are - "didn't say it was a programming" and
> "believed".

I believe in phrases, but not in magic.

What: "I told a girl she should do programming, and she said 'Oh,
little ol' me, that's boys' stuff', and run away. Next time, I was
a bit more clever, and more intelligent with respect to the 'girl
psyche', so I didn't mention programming, and it worked like a
charm."

I don't believe in that. I believe in capacity, and those girls
had it. From there, it is the easiest thing in the world to bring
forward that capacity, and you don't have to resort to any Slim
Shady street smartness to do it.

The honor belongs to those girls, and not to some dude 'fooling'
them into doing what he wanted them to. (Of course, *he* didn't
need any fooling. He got it right from day one!)

> Not a poet here.

That was an example.

-- 
Emanuel Berg - programmer (hire me! CV below)
computer projects: http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573
internet activity: http://home.student.uu.se/embe8573