Re: *scratch* considered harmful

[Eli Zaretskii]

On 15 Nov 2001, Per Starback wrote:

> Many times I've seen beginners start typing their text in *scratch*
> instead of visiting a file.  Eventually they will save it, and then
> give a file name.  That the scratch buffer says "If you want to create
> a file, ..." is somehow not enough.  Sometimes they don't realize that
> the initial text in *scratch* is part of the buffer, so it will be
> left in the file they are writing.
> 
> Having a scratch buffer for lisp evaluation is sometimes useful for
> an expert, but not for a beginner.

FWIW, I think there's no need for radical measures here.  Beginners
learn very quickly that they need to visit a file, and the problem
goes away.  (Or maybe they become ``experts'', if that's your
definition ;-)  At least judging by gnu.emacs.help, the scratch buffer
never bothers anybody too much.

> The initial splash screens on the other hand contain stuff that *is*
> useful for the beginner. Unfortunately the information there
> disappears immediately when the beginner types something.

This is a different issue, IMHO.  I think we should have some mode
whereby the important commands are always shown in a read-only buffer,
but those commands are not necessarily what's in the splash screen
(the image that it shows should go, for example).

There's no need IMO to mix these two issues and design a single change
that should ``solve'' both.