Re: Is Elisp really that slow?

[tomas]

On Thu, May 16, 2019 at 10:50:45PM +0200, Óscar Fuentes wrote:
> Can't resist on commenting two points:
> 
> Ergus <spacibba@aol.com> writes:
> 
> > 3) The development is not focused in the first thing that a user needs
> > when she opens emacs: provide the most comfortable and useful TEXT
> > EDITOR.
> 
> For many people this is Notepad.

+1 :-)

> > If emacs as TEXT EDITOR does not convince them (just the first try,
> > without config, without reading the manual/tutorial/documentation), then
> > they will not even try any other functionality.
> 
> Indeed, Emacs has a non-negligible learning curve. Other editors do a
> lot out of the box in a familiar way [...]

Yes.

I've been in this software business for 30+ years, and with the arrival
of "commodity computing", I've observed a strong anti-pattern: designs
tend to cater to the buyer and not to the user.

I'll explain: If you decide which product to "buy", you haven't the
time/resources to become proficient with that product: you decide on
first impressions. But once you use that product for years, you'll
"need" other features, which perhaps don't stick out at first sight.

There are two mechanisms pushing that anti-pattern forward:

1. In bigger corporations those taking the decision which software
  to "buy" (usually in the monetary sense) won't be those
  paid (and thus more or less blackmailed) to use it. Management
  goes "oh, shiny" and workers go "oh, no!".

2. In general, when you personally "buy" a piece of software
  (in the monetary, or in the general sense), you often have
  no idea on what you need, so you go "oh shiny" again, and
  sink considerable effort into fine-tuning your interface to
  that software. Re-tuning is so expensive that you better not
  think of it (as a long-time vi user, I mostly moved to Emacs
  about ten years ago: it /was/ expensive.

Cheers

[1] "buy" in a very general sense: it might cost money or not,
   but it'll cost learning, dedication and commitment.
-- t

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