Gmail eats Python

[Rustom Mody]

On Sunday, July 26, 2015 at 2:06:00 PM UTC+5:30, Marko Rauhamaa wrote:
> Rustom Mody :
> 
> > Emacs 'tries to be everything' in exactly the same way that a 'general
> > purpose programming language' is too general and by pretending to
> > solve all problems actually solves none (until you hire a programmer).
> 
> Emacs isn't too general. It's just right.
> 
> > Problem with emacs (culture) is that its aficionados assume that a
> > superb conceptual design trumps technological relevance,
> 
> It's relevant to me every day, for business and pleasure.
> 
> > [Did you notice that you used the locutions 'M-$', 'M-x'? What sense
> > does this 80s terminology make to an emacs uninitiate in 2015?
> 
> They can be initiated in mere seconds to that esoteric knowledge.

You are being obtuse Marko!

Yeah that 'M-' is what everyone calls Alt can be conveyed in a few seconds
But there are a hundred completely useless pieces of comtemporary-to-emacs
inconsistency:
- What everyone calls a window, emacs calls a frame
- And what emacs calls a window, everyone calls a pane
- What everyone does with C-x emacs does with C-w (and woe betide if you mix that up)
- What everyone calls head (of a list) emacs calls Car (Toyota?)

> 
> > From seeing my 20-year-olf students suffer all this
> 
> What do your students suffer from? The beauty of the matter is that they
> can use any editor they like. They don't have to like or use emacs.
> 
> (In some shops you actually virtually *have* to use Eclipse or Visual
> Studio or the some such thing. That *is* painful.)
> 
> > combined with the hopelessness of convincing the emacs folks that we
> > are in 2015, not 1980,
> 
> What do you need to convince emacs folks about? Emacs isn't perfect at
> everything, but the emacs developers have kept it admirably up to date.
> It has been following the quirks of Java, git and MS Exchange even if it
> has been an uphill battle.
> 
> > I conclude this is a losing battle
> 
> What would you like to achieve, exactly?

Some attitude correction?
That emacs starts its tutorial showing how to use C-p and C-n for what
everyone uses arrows is bad enough.
That the arrow-keys are later found to work quite alright is even worse
and speaks of a ridiculous attitude