Re: Emacs learning curve

[David Kastrup]

Óscar Fuentes <address@hidden> writes:

> David Kastrup <address@hidden> writes:
>
> [snip]
>
>> People who can't be bothered to think about keybindings can't likely be
>> bothered to think about programming.
>
> This is so wrong.
>
> Have you ever re-trained your muscle memory for something you do 500
> times a day while being concentrated on a higher level task?

I used vi before Emacs.  I switched to the chromatic button accordion
from playing piano accordion and am playing more than 500 notes per day.

> That every time it goes wrong your concentration suffers and hence is
> irritating as hell? Can you think of the level of motivation required
> for suffering that pain for days, maybe weeks, until you are
> accustomed to the new keybindings?

Accordion literature is standardized on the 41-key piano accordion.  My
CBA, in contrast, has 62 notes.  The additional notes are mostly of
interest when
a) playing music written for other instruments (like the piano or trios),
b) improvising.
c) playing music composed yourself.

So that's the level of "programmer".  Yes.

> Emacs' idiosyncratic keybindings are, without doubt, the higher entry
> barrier nowadays. Maybe it wasn't so 15 years ago, when people assumed
> that every application had different keybindings for the same trivial
> chores, but those times are long gone. The least thing Emacs can do is
> to advertise with big letters on the welcome screen something like:
>
> IF YOU ARE NEW TO EMACS, CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO USE KEYBINDINGS WICH
> CONFORMS ARE MORE FAMILIAR TO YOU.
>
> and figure out how to display the correct keybindings on the
> documentation when the user has cua-mode activated.

They interfere with Emacs' normal keybindings.  How are newcomers going
to figure out how to deal with partly working keybindings, depending on
how long they happen to press their keys?

-- 
David Kastrup