Re: Is Emacs very alive, active and improving?

[Emanuel Berg]

Bob Proulx <bob@proulx.com> writes:

> Being bilingual is not that difficult if you are
> actually fluent in the two.  I don't even think about
> it.  My fingers just go.

OK, you realize I speak of "bilingual" in the sense of
Emacs and Vim, right? If you are (as fluent), then
that's really cool.

> Why?  Because of the time for the learning curve?
> That is, it takes a long time to learn something well?

Yes. And then you have to "re-learn" when you go back
(although that will be much faster). Again, you realize
I'm not talking learning as in intelligence etc., I'm
talking the, I don't know, mental-physical bound. Like
if you put your hand in the fire, you don't think "the
heat will disintegrate my hand, so I must save it by
removing it", instead the skin - I don't know exactly
how it works... the skins sends "fear" and pain to your
brain, which sends a command to get away from the source
of danger right away?

> If you look at a workbench of a wood craftsman you
> will find a variety of chisels, a variety of hammers,
> saws, planes, and other tools.  There isn't a single
> tool that does everything best.  It is often good to
> have a variety of tools available.

Yes, but the saw and the hammer are not that difficult
to master. I don't think those can be compared to Emacs
or Vim. It is more like people fighting at the
Colosseum. I would rather have one guy who has perfected
swordplay his entire life, and one guy who did the same
with the spear, than two guys who were pretty good with
lots of weapons.

-- 
Emanuel Berg, programmer-for-rent. CV, projects, etc at uXu
underground experts united:  http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573