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When it was written, there were no widespread GUIs. Standardized keyboard layouts on computers were just starting to be a thing. Many of its users were using

by blihp 6y ago

When it was written, there were no widespread GUIs. Standardized keyboard layouts on computers were just starting to be a thing. Many of its users were using terminals, not workstations or PCs. So they adopted, and probably more often invented, terminology and conventions for a world that predated almost everything people today know and understand. So it's not user-hostile, it's just really old. The knee-jerk answer would be 'well just update the conventions/terminology'. The problem is, update it to what? There is no timeless terminology they can use. As the tech industry increasingly resembles the fashion industry, they'd need to slap a new coat of UI paint on it at least every 10 years to keep up... as what was 'user friendly' terminology today won't be in not too many years. So now the developers are spending a big chunk of their time 'modernizing' it rather than actually making it better... not something most developers are interested in doing for a passion project.

ableal 6y ago
> Many of its users were using terminals Perhaps an example will be more vivid. In the eighties most people who were on the internet worked on a 24 line by 80 column terminal. Some people used Emacs buffers as a predecessor to multiple windows on large screens: - Edit your code, perhaps splitting the screen in two buffers to look at different files or places in a large file. - Split yet again one buffer for compilation error messages. - Split the other one for a shell subprocess to run the program, check mail, etc. Basically all-Emacs all day. Not my setup, but I saw it done often enough.
rodgerd 6y ago
> So it's not user-hostile, it's just really old. Expecting people to adapt to 1984 - which, just a reminder folks, is more than 30 years ago - rather than updating your documentation and maybe some keybindings to better reflect today is in fact incredibly fucking user hostile.

by blihp 6y ago

ableal 6y ago

> Many of its users were using terminals Perhaps an example will be more vivid. In the eighties most people who were on the internet worked on a 24 line by 80 column terminal. Some people used Emacs buffers as a predecessor to multiple windows on large screens: - Edit your code, perhaps splitting the screen in two buffers to look at different files or places in a large file. - Split yet again one buffer for compilation error messages. - Split the other one for a shell subprocess to run the program, check mail, etc. Basically all-Emacs all day. Not my setup, but I saw it done often enough.

rodgerd 6y ago

> So it's not user-hostile, it's just really old. Expecting people to adapt to 1984 - which, just a reminder folks, is more than 30 years ago - rather than updating your documentation and maybe some keybindings to better reflect today is in fact incredibly fucking user hostile.