RE: My emacs was upgraded and I am a novice again

[Drew Adams]

> > I've always wished each emacs release would come with a doc file
> > mentioning each new feature and giving the lisp code to add to
> > your .emacs file to put it back the way it was in the previous
> > release.
>
> f1 C-n

[Moved to emacs-devel from help-gnu-emacs.]

1. Say, do we have a link to NEWS somewhere in our new startup-display
madness? I don't remember. If not, we should.

We might even have a nag screen for the first time (only) that you fire up
Emacs, asking if you would like to see an overview of the new features. Sort
of a "Welcome to Emacs 25" screen that would only be for a first startup
(per user). I say "overview" because that's what users want to start with.
That overview should have a link to the more detailed NEWS.

Such a feature is not unusual. Each Oracle manual, for instance, starts with
a "What's New" section (chapter) describing the important changes for the
current release that are pertinent to the subject of that manual. This is
not a description of doc changes; it is a description of new features.
AFAIK, the Emacs manual (likewise Elisp) has only an Antinews section.
Shouldn't it aso have a brief What's New, as well? What's New (and its
detailed version, NEWS) and Antinews go together.

Yes, I realize that you can read Antinews as a humorous What's New. But I
think the two are not the same, and there is value in an explicit What's
New.


2. Do we have a link from NEWS to the AntiNews section in the manual (and
vice versa)? If not, we should. Many users of a new release want to know (a)
what's new and (b) how, for some new feature, to back the behavior they had
in the previous release.

This is independent of the particular product - there are always some users
who prefer the former behavior. When the former behavior is still available
(e.g. by changing an option value), we should make that info visible.