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RE: Emacs Primer: Emacs on Mac


From: Drew Adams
Subject: RE: Emacs Primer: Emacs on Mac
Date: Sat, 23 May 2015 08:44:44 -0700 (PDT)

> >     http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/EmacsForMacOS
> > which mentions Cocoa and Aquamacs and also provides
> > the links
> >     http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/AquamacsEmacs
> >     http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/BuildingAquamacs
> >     http://aquamacs.org
> > and many others.
> 
> The problem with Emacswiki is I have no idea how reliable
> the information is.

And how much of an idea do you get about how reliable the
info provided here is? ;-)

In that case I guess you at least have an email address to
look at ;-), and at least the email answers are recent,
even if nothing guarantees that the info they contain is
recent or accurate.  OK, recent email.

IMO, though nothing guarantees that any particular info on
EmacsWiki is accurate, helpful, or recent, and though info on
the wiki is variable in all of those respects, it can be
quite helpful (just as can be this list, emacs.stackexchange,
and other socially-maintained-&-corrected resources).

EmacsWiki is often a good place to start and a good
entrypoint to other resources.

A good approach in this case might have been to start your
research there, and then pose here any specific "verification"
questions you might have about some of the info you gathered
there.

IOW, you could have started by not just throwing out the
general question here but doing exactly what Emanuel did to
try to help you: see what EmacsWiki tells you.

Or as is often said in reply to general "fish-for-me" questions
on Stack*: Show what research you've done so far, what you've
tried ("show your code").

> The problem with Emacswiki is I have no idea how reliable
> the information is.

That describes a problem with your idea, not with EmacsWiki.
You have no idea.  OK.  How will you get an idea?

My advice is to start with EmacsWiki, where others like you
have spent time contributing from their experience.  And then
look beyond, verifying and supplementing wiki info as needed.
(And then circle back and update the wiki, if appropriate.)

> I was hoping to get specific answers and recommendations
> (rather than a link).

And hopefully you will.  But specific does not imply good.

And is your aversion to a link based only on not knowing
whether its info is reliable?  Or is it perhaps based partly
on not wanting to spend the effort of looking up the info
yourself?

Do you just want someone else to do the reading and
experimenting, and then provide you with a one-line answer?
If so, then how should we understand your complaint about
having "no idea how reliable the information is"?

> I don't have Mac and I am asking for this information so that I can
> document it in the Emacs Primer.  I will be happy if someone writes
> a detailed reply that would help us all.

Hm.  Talk about getting reliable and recent information!

Will you be updating your book often, to ensure that such
info is always accurate and helpful?  How will you check
the accuracy (without a Mac)?  Will you be asking this list
periodically to provide you with detailed replies that will
help us all?  How will anyone know "how reliable the
information is" that you provide in your book?

EmacsWiki has some info that is out of date, sure.  But at
least interested people do update the content there, and
typically based on first-hand experience.  And anyone can
do so.

At the end of the day, that seems more likely to provide
up-to-date info than relying on a particular author/editor
to update a book whenever s?he can do so and feels like it.

EmacsWiki is what it is.  It is *one* resource, and a
pretty good one overall.  And you and anyone else can
contribute to it and improve it.

And I hope you do, putting the up-to-date info you obtain
here and elsewhere on the wiki.  The wiki is only as good
and as reliable as you make it.



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