Re: Why does the tutorial talk about C-n/C-p etc?

[Phillip Lord]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

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> Users who learn move the cursor with arrow keys in Emacs experience
> slow editing.  We should get them started the way that works better.

I have doubts that you have any strong evidence for this. The arrows
keys work perfectly well in my experience. In addition, there is the
mouse. And if that is still too slow, you can use things like ace-jump.
The mouse and arrows keys also have an additional huge advantage: they
work any where, including outside Emacs.

Even if you are correct, then you still have to account for the negative
effect putting "how to move the cursor" in front of new users. Most of
them see this and think, "why is this so hard" (I have at least weak
evidence of this, from sitting behind new users and watching).

The point of a tutorial is not to teach people to become brilliantly
efficent power users. It's to get them going, and to see the advantages
as quickly as possible.

Phil