Re: Initial splash screen (was Re: A wish, a plea)

[Stephen Berman]

On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 17:53:29 -0400 Richard Stallman <address@hidden> wrote:

>     This may have been suggested before (I haven't searched the archives
>     for it), but since the issue has been raised again, what about this:
>     show the splash screen the first time the user invokes Emacs (even
>     with a file name) and ask whether to show it on the next invocation.
>
> I won't reject this, but I am not sure if it is really more
> convenient.  To have to answer the question may be more inconvenient
> than to be shown the splash screen.  People will say "turn it off"
> because they don't want to be asked the question, not because of the
> splash screen itself.

You may be right; I don't know.  But at least the question can force
them to take notice of the splash screen.  My suggestion is based on
the assumption that newbies often overlook the information in the
splash screen, precisely because it appears on each invocation and
automatically disappears, like the typically uninformative splash
screens of most GUI programs.  I don't have data to support this
assumption, but it doesn't seem too farfetched.

> It might be better to make the splash screen mention
> a command to set inhibit-splash-screen.  That will make
> it easier to turn it off, without annoying anyone.

Assuming they in fact read it.

Steve Berman