3 ms·

Seems clear and useful. That said, there's nothing particularly bad or inaccessible about the actual Emacs Lisp manual: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manu

by ajross 2y ago

Seems clear and useful. That said, there's nothing particularly bad or inaccessible about the actual Emacs Lisp manual: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/elisp.html#Introduction https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/elisp.ht... Or the official tutorial: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/eintr.html#Preface https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/eintr.ht... (which to be clear I haven't read, but have heard nice things about). Of all the things for which emacs can be criticised, documentation rigor is really not one.

db48x 2y ago
Agreed; Emacs is the gold standard for documentation. It comes with a reference manual (400k words), an Emacs Lisp reference (600k words), _and_ 64 other manuals for individual Emacs modes or features including one just for Calc mode (250k words), a manual just for Org mode (130k words), one for Gnus (180k words) etc. All told it adds up to about 2.6 million words of documentation. Still, another manual written from a different perspective probably won’t hurt anything.
- beepbooptheory 2y ago
  The Gnus manual in particular has certain whimsical Pratchett-esque charm to it that I love so much.
  - kstrauser 2y ago
    The manual (https://www.gnus.org/manual.html https://www.gnus.org/manual.html) starts with: > See what the critics say about the manual: > “Often when I read the manual, I think that we should take a collection up to have Lars psycho-analysed.”
spudlyo 2y ago
One reasons Prot himself was able to become a bonafide Emacs Guru in just a few years is because he's the kind of person who reads manuals. He speaks highly of the included docs, and often credits them for his knowledge.
- sph 2y ago
  And he wasn’t even a programmer by trade. AFAIK he used to work in Brussels at the European Commission, he started using Emacs for his writing and taught himself Emacs Lisp as a first programming language, probably by diving deep into the Emacs manual.

by ajross 2y ago

db48x 2y ago

Agreed; Emacs is the gold standard for documentation. It comes with a reference manual (400k words), an Emacs Lisp reference (600k words), _and_ 64 other manuals for individual Emacs modes or features including one just for Calc mode (250k words), a manual just for Org mode (130k words), one for Gnus (180k words) etc. All told it adds up to about 2.6 million words of documentation. Still, another manual written from a different perspective probably won’t hurt anything.

beepbooptheory 2y ago
The Gnus manual in particular has certain whimsical Pratchett-esque charm to it that I love so much.
- kstrauser 2y ago
  The manual (https://www.gnus.org/manual.html https://www.gnus.org/manual.html) starts with: > See what the critics say about the manual: > “Often when I read the manual, I think that we should take a collection up to have Lars psycho-analysed.”

spudlyo 2y ago

One reasons Prot himself was able to become a bonafide Emacs Guru in just a few years is because he's the kind of person who reads manuals. He speaks highly of the included docs, and often credits them for his knowledge.

sph 2y ago
And he wasn’t even a programmer by trade. AFAIK he used to work in Brussels at the European Commission, he started using Emacs for his writing and taught himself Emacs Lisp as a first programming language, probably by diving deep into the Emacs manual.