Re: have you read emacs manual cover to cover?; (was Do we need a "Stevens" book?)

[Xah Lee]

On Jul 30, 10:47 pm, Xah Lee <xah...@gmail.com> wrote:
> cleaned up and extended my previous post. Sentences and ideas made
> more precise and detailed.
>
> • Emacs Idolization: Have You Read the Emacs Manual From Cover to
> Cover?
> http://xahlee.org/emacs/emacs_manual_cover_to_cover.html

2010-08-08

I ran into a Chinese blog article on emacs today.  It's written in a
“Question & Answer” format. Quite funny and well done.  It's at:
http://yehnan.blogspot.com/2010/06/gnu-emacs-on-windows.html

there's a interesting section about emacs documentation. Here's a
excerpt:

「
問：這些文件怎麼看起來怪怪的？
答：我覺得Emacs官方寫的文件都很奇怪很囉嗦，因為：

第一，寫的人把用的人都當做初學者，沒有使用編輯器的經驗、甚至沒有使用電腦的經驗。看看這段話：
"Files are named units of text which are stored by the operating
system for you to retrieve later by name."，拜託，我還需要你教我“檔案”是什麼東西嗎？

第二，寫文件的人似乎停留在1980年代，裡面很多術語都很老舊了，看看這個：
" We use the term frame to mean the entire terminal screen or
graphical window used by Emacs."、"The main area of the frame, below
the tool bar (if one exists) and above the echo area, is called the
window."，哇哩咧，你的frame是我的window，你的window又是什麼鬼？

第三，寫文件的人還在緬懷以前的時光，有些在以前算特殊的功能，已經不再特殊了，例如：
"You are reading about GNU Emacs, the GNU incarnation of the advanced,
self-
documenting, customizable, extensible editor Emacs."，啥？self-
documenting？哪個編輯器沒有說明文件啊？extensible, customizable？現在很多編輯器多多少少都可以客製化了。

第四，有些功能太過強大，所以解釋起來很麻煩：
"You can yank text from the kill ring into any position in a buffer,
including a position in a different buffer; the kill ring is shared by
all buffers."，yank&kill在這裡等於cut&paste，而kill ring呢？大概是指你cut好幾次後，不會只剩下最後一次
cut的東西，之前的都還在kill ring裡面。

第五，因為Emacs以鍵盤為主，雖然現在有滑鼠可以用了，可是其中心思想還是要求所有的功能動作都要能用鍵盤達到，以至於像“把一段文字圈選”這種以
滑鼠可以輕易達到的功能，手冊要用好多篇幅講解鍵盤的指令。譬如說：
"Setting the mark at a position in the text also activates it. When
the mark is active, Emacs indicates the extent of the region by
highlighting the text within it, using the region face. After certain
non-motion commands, including any command that changes the text in
the buffer, Emacs automatically deactivates the mark; this turns off the
highlighting. "，什麼鬼啊，滑鼠點一點拉一拉就好了啦。
」

--------------------------------------------------

here's my translation

--------------------------------------------------

Q: These docs look odd?

A: I think emacs's official doc are all odd and verbose, because:

(1) The writer thinks users are all beginners, with no experience in
using a editor, even no experience in using a computer. Look at this
sentence:

“Files are named units of text which are stored by the operating
system for you to retrieve later by name.”.

O please, do i need to be told what's a file?

(2) The author seems to have stopped in the 1980s, lots of terms have
gone obsolete. Look at these:

«We use the term frame to mean the entire terminal screen or graphical
window used by Emacs.»,

«The main area of the frame, below the tool bar (if one exists) and
above the echo area, is called the window.»

Wow, your “frame” is my “window”, then what gobling is your “window”?

(3) Author is nostalgic of the past era; some advanced features are no
longer advanced. Example:

«You are reading about GNU Emacs, the GNU incarnation of the advanced,
self- documenting, customizable, extensible editor Emacs.»

huh? “self-documenting”? What editor doesn't have documentation?
“extensible, customizable”? Nowadays many editors all can be
customized to some degree.

(4) Some features are too powerful, so explanation is difficult:

«You can yank text from the kill ring into any position in a buffer,
including a position in a different buffer; the kill ring is shared by
all buffers.»

The “yank&kill” here is like “cut&paste”, then what's “kill ring”?
Perhaps that means when you cut many times, it won't leave just the
last cut text, previous cuts are all still in “kill ring”.

(5) Because Emacs uses keyboard as its primary input, although these
days we have mouse, but the core design thinking still requires all
functionalities to be operable with a keyboard. For example, “select a
text”. This can be easily done with a mouse, thus the manual must use
lots words to explain how this is done with keyboard. Example:

«Setting the mark at a position in the text also activates it. When
the mark is active, Emacs indicates the extent of the region by
highlighting the text within it, using the region face. After certain
non-motion commands, including any command that changes the text in
the buffer, Emacs automatically deactivates the mark; this turns off the
highlighting.»

what the hell, a click here and a drag there with the mouse and be
done with it.

  Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄