Re: Why does the tutorial talk about C-n/C-p etc?

[Evgeny Panasyuk]

10.03.2016 0:32, Tim Cross :
> Emacs has an audience/user base, but to believe that equals the set of
> all people who use editors is a mistake. Some people just want a very
> simple editor which is easy to use and only does basic editing - there
> are plenty of these editors.

IMO larger user base, including "casual" users, would not harm Emacs.

> These users are unlikely to ever enjoy
> emacs. Doing your shopping in a formula 1 car is never going to work.

Your analogy suggests that just text editing with Emacs is intrinsically 
hard and we cannot do anything about it - it is F1 after all which is 
not designed for shopping (editing).

> Those who need/want a more powerful editor are unlikely to be put off by
> the tutorial. This doesn't mean we can't improve the tutorial.

I think the problem is not in tutorial itself, but in non-ergonomic 
default keybindings.
C-n, C-p, C-f, C-b - are laid out on keyboard without any symmetry. This 
is purely historical artifact. There is nothing powerful in these bindings.
Even vi's hjkl are more symmetrical and ergonomic (though also have deep 
historical roots).

--
Evgeny Panasyuk