Re: Is it possible to scroll smoothly in Emacs?

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2014-12-04, at 14:41, Phillip Lord wrote:

> Bug Dout <buggsy2@mailinator.com> writes:
>
>> Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> writes:
>>
>>> (Not that I really need it - I recommended Emacs to one student, and
>>> lack of smooth scrolling was one of his main gripes.)
>>
>> Spoiled young whipper-snappers, in my day I carried punch cards to the
>> computer center, in the snow, and uphill both ways. And damn grateful
>> for the opportunity.
>
>
> Without wishing to be negative about the humour, the original question
> was a good one.

Well, the jokes were good (I especially liked the "uphill both ways"
part).  Especially that I also remember some good ol' times (not
punch cards, but a Commodore 64, and later a 386 PC with 4 megz of RAM;
I did *lots* of TeX stuff in the `F4' editor of a clone of Norton
Commander...)

> Looking cool and modern is important. Personally, I dislike smooth
> scrolling but it is often what people expect.

Actually, even though I personally don't miss smooth scrolling, that
student did convince me that it's a good idea: it is quite easy to press
C-v/M-v accidentally and get lost.  Smooth scrolling gives a visual clue
of the direction we went in the file.  It's not really a question of
aesthetics, it is a question of usability/UX.

Also, *if* we want to draw young people to Emacs, we should be
competitive.  If this is what people expect (and it is, at least
sometimes), and it does not contradict the `Emacs workflow' (whatever
that is, you know - I'm definitely too young to know that;-)), then why
not?  If even RMS suggested implementing word-processing features in
Emacs, why not smooth scrolling?

> Phil

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
Adam Mickiewicz University