Re: Emacs starter kit - disabled menus

[Jorgen Grahn]

On Sun, 2011-05-01, Tim X wrote:
> Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:
>
>>> I am not sure if this is the most efficient way to do it, but if you comment
>>> out (one or two semicolons ;; ) the first three lines of Lisp code in the
>>> init.el file, this will restore the menus, buttons and scrollbars.
>>
>> A simpler way might be to start with an empty .emacs file (no starter
>> kit or any such thing), check the Options menu since it contains the
>> most frequently asked configuration variables, and post questions in
>> this newsgroup when you don't know how to do something.
>>
>>
> +1 for this suggestion. 
>
> The problem with the various "starter kits" is that you are at the mercy of 
> someone
> elses vision of what emacs should be. This in itself is not necessarily
> bad, except this other vision is likely to be less documented, have less
> users familiar with it who can provide help and may change the
> environment sufficiently to make the existing emacs documentation less
> useful. Its not always obvious how well maintained this other vision
> is or to what extent it is specific to a platform etc. 
>
> Another disadvantage of using a canned configuration is that these
> setups often go to a lot of trouble to make emacs just like other
> editors people are familiar with. While I can understand why some like
> this, it is likely to be misleading. If you have decided to try out
> emacs, you likely want to see how it differs from other editing
> environments. Initially configuring it to ge as generic as possible is
> likely to defeat this objective. There are also a number of things emacs
> does very differently to most other editors out there. These differences
> can seem very weird or unintuitive initially because of what we have
> become accustomed to. However, my experience has been that many of them
> are actually improvements. Using a canned starter configuration often
> modifies these things to be more familiar, so you don't get to
> experience the alternative and will miss out on this different perspectie.
>
> There is a learning curve with emacs and the best thing to do is learn
> it early. Try to stick with the default configuration initially and only
> customize those aspects you find the most difficult to live with. Then,
> over time, start to tweak/customize your setup little by little. In
> addition to allowing you to experience the way emacs does things, this
> will also allow you to learn how to customize it in smaller steps. This
> means you will understand how your customizations work and what they do.
> When you run into errors, you will be in a better position to fix them.
> Don't hesitate to come back to this forum when you run into difficulty.
>
> Many people think emacs is the best editor out there, some have a
> love/hate relationship with it and some just think it sucks. It doesn't
> matter which group your in. However, it is better to assess emacs and
> not be side tracked into assessing someone elses vision of what it could
> be. At the end of the day, you can then make a call as to which group
> you fall into and to what extent you want to continue using it.

And a +1 for your posting too! I don't have the heart to trim it while
replying.

I can add that IMHO what you write also applies to giving copies of
your own .emacs to people.  Some (most?) people have a lot of
undocumented stuff in it. Like this which I inherited from a guy
called Per in 1996:

    ;; Fix upcase-region and downcase-region
    (put 'downcase-region 'disabled nil)
    (put 'upcase-region 'disabled nil)

I have no idea what it does ...

/Jorgen

-- 
  // Jorgen Grahn <grahn@  Oo  o.   .  .
\X/     snipabacken.se>   O  o   .