Re: Emacs learning curve

[Lennart Borgman]

On Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 1:17 PM, Eli Zaretskii <address@hidden> wrote:
>> From: Tom <address@hidden>
>> Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:36:46 +0000 (UTC)
>>
>> Is there a compelling reason to still use yank/kill, instead of 
>> copy/cut/paste?
>
> From the Emacs manual:
>
>  * Killing::           Killing (cutting) text.
>  * Yanking::           Recovering killed text.  Moving text. (Pasting.)
>
> and then:
>
>    12 Killing and Moving Text
>    **************************
>
>    "Killing" means erasing text and copying it into the "kill ring", from
>    which you can bring it back into the buffer by "yanking" it.  (Some
>    applications use the terms "cutting" and "pasting" for similar
>    operations.)

I think it is quite clear from this text that there is no logical
reason any more not to use the common terms copy/cut/paste.

>> Why do we call the cursor the point?
>
> Because point is not the cursor.  The cursor only shows the position
> of point in the visible windows (and on character terminals, only in
> the single selected window).  We still need a term for the ``current
> position in the buffer''.

So the term used for cursor is really "window point". Which could be
changed to "cursor".

>> These relics of old terminology should be updated to the accepted modern
>> variants to make the documentation is more accessible for emacs newbies.
>
> And then they will be queuing up to start using Emacs, no doubt.

I have several times pointed out that it is the sum of the differences
that makes it difficult for new users. The stories about users wanting
to try but giving up partly because they realize they do not have time
to go through all the differences are frequent.