Re: Emacs Book Vs Emacs Manuals

[Phillip Lord]

Tassilo Horn <tsdh@gnu.org> writes:
>>>>
>>>> a) Through the different Manuals (there are many and they are big)
>>>>
>>>> b) Through a Book that puts all of the different pieces together in a
>>>>    concise mannner.
>>>
>>> The best way to learn emacs is the tutorial (C-h t).
>>
>> I wish this were true.  Actually, the tutorial is not a good
>> introduction to emacs.  It's over 200 lines before you get off "how to
>> move the cursor around".
>
> Mine starts with the key binding notation, then come some empty lines,
> and then on line 53ff immediately C-v/M-v are explained.  The section at
> line 93 then starts the section about C-f/C-b/C-n/C-p, then word-wise
> motion, then bol/eol motion.  Around line 200, the basic motion commands
> are done with the exception of M-</M-> and the use of an numeric
> argument.

Yep, that's quite a lot. And then it goes into "What to do when Emacs in
Hung". After that, it starts talking about Windows which, of course, are
not windows.

It's very off-putting. I didn't realise this till, of course, till I
watched on of my students fight with it.

>> Most people these days assume that you do this with the mouse or a
>> finger and that doesn't take 200 lines to explain.  Works with Emacs
>> too.
>
> Yes, and the tutorial also states that you can use the arrow keys or the
> mouse for scrolling/moving point.  Ok, not at prominent positions.  But
> if the tutorial started with "you can use emacs like notepad" then users
> would immediately pick up the habit of using emacs like notepad.

If users move the cursor in Emacs the same way at they do in notepad,
that's fine by me.

>> There are other introductions out there, and one of the needs to be
>> integrated into Emacs.
>
> Out of interest, which ones?

This one has some funky pictures of the basic GUI elements.


http://www.jesshamrick.com/2012/09/10/absolute-beginners-guide-to-emacs/


This one is quite nice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6jfrrwR10k

Xah Lee's stuff is erratic but useful.

Basically, anything that doesn't start off with keybindings would be
good for me. They can come later.

Phil