Re: Emacs learning curve

[David Kastrup]

Tom <address@hidden> writes:

> Drew Adams <drew.adams <at> oracle.com> writes:
>> 
>> We've seen no real demonstration in this thread that there is a
>> dwindling interest in Emacs by users (which was the claim that
>> started the thread), but I would be willing to guess that there is
>> insufficient new blood in the Emacs development community.
>>
>
> That's why Emacs should be made more attractive to newbies and old
> timers shouldn't resist UI changes. More new blood means more
> testers/developers (some of them would definitely want to help out),
> so it would be healthy for Emacs in general.

New blood is less likely to cope with an incoherent mess than with
consistent old-style stuff.  And that goes particularly for users likely
to become developers.  If they have to cut through layers and layers of
hoops and workarounds intended to forcefully marry code written under
different assumptions with precariously fragile stuff trying to
accommodate new users as an add-on (CUA keybindings come into mind),
they are much more likely to throw up their hands and leave the magic of
developing to the old magicians.

Coherency and clarity is much more important for gaining new developers
than customary keybindings.

-- 
David Kastrup