4 ms·
A couple of decades ago, a couple of us wrote a word processor. We thought a lot about the issues of novices and usability and came to the conclusion that user
by russell 18y ago
A couple of decades ago, a couple of us wrote a word processor. We thought a lot about the issues of novices and usability and came to the conclusion that users are novices for only a short time and spend most of their time as intermediates. True power users are few. So basic operations should be intuitive even if not strictly consistent. Everything else should be easily discoverable. Really esoteric things could be left to the manual, but still discoverable.
A novice friendly interface should not impede an experienced user, and there should not be experience based modes. You don't see much of these days. MS Word is an example of a crappy interface. Some non-esoteric functions are hidden away in non-discoverable corners and it does magical things as a default. Eclipse is another program with a crappy interface, because of different modes and views. I have finally accommodated my self because it eases the intense pain of Java programming, but on the whole I would rather use UltraEdit.
Of course none of this applies to emacs users. They are are a secret society unto, themselves, kind of like the Masons.
- silentbicycle 18y ago> Of course none of this applies to emacs users. They are are a secret society unto, themselves, kind of like the Masons. Dude. Using Emacs really isn't that hard, and mystifying it doesn't do anybody any favors. (I can understand if it's not your cup of tea, though.) It just does a bad job of "creating the illusion of simplicity" (as Grady Booch once put it).
- arockwell 18y agoI love emacs, but it is anything but inuitive. None of its features are discoverable and to learn how to use it you have to read a bunch of info pages.
- pivo 18y agoUm.. most of Emacs' features are discoverable: M-x describe-bindings - List of all keybindings for the current mode M-x describe-mode - Information about the current major mode M-x apropos - Search for info on subject Emacs is the self describing editor!
- GHFigs 18y agoAnd how did you discover those commands?
- pivo 18y agoI spent about 30 minutes reading the the Emacs Tutorial when I first starting using the editor.
- d0mine 18y agoI can't find `describe-bindings` or `C-h b` to be mentioned in the tutorial.
- kaens 18y agoC-h and a bit of a pause gives you: C-h (Type ? for further options) Type ? and you get a list. From the tut: To use the Help features, type the C-h character, and then a character saying what kind of help you want. If you are REALLY lost, type C-h ? and Emacs will tell you what kinds of help it can give. If you have typed C-h and decide you do not want any help, just type C-g to cancel it.
- d0mine 18y agoThe fact that `C-h b` is not mentioned in the tutorial doesn't imply that one can't find it or doesn't know how to use it. There are hundreds emacs commands. The fact that description for any command can be found through help doesn't mean that you've discovered them all after spending 30 minutes reading the Emacs Tutorial.
- kaens 18y agoThe point is that the direct link to 'C-h b' is mentioned in the tutorial. That section of the tutorial also has sections on a few of the options in C-h. That is how pivo found it. By going "oh, I wonder what else is there" and hitting C-h ? If you're not the type of person that does stuff like that, emacs probably isn't the editor for you. Hell, software development probably isn't for you. Yeah, emacs is large - and has lots of features. Once you've been through the tut, and spent a few days with the editor, they're quite discoverable. It does make the assumption that you want to discover though.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]