Re: [O] Org expert mode?

[Joost Helberg]

Bastien and others,

When I worked in Hoofddorp in the early 90's, I travelled 2.5 hours by
train every day. I reserved half of the train-time every single day
for a year checking out GNU Emacs stuff I didn't understand on my
notebook. This helped me a lot in going places (aka major modes, elisp
code and, later, customizations) I didn't dare visiting before.

The same is true for most of the *Customization* stuff. Seeing things
beyond your boundaries of understanding satisfies curiosity. Checking out
stuff you don't completely understand is part of the Emacs journey. A
journey which is a lot more exciting than any other virtual software
inspired journey I've encountered. 

The creation of an `Expert mode' will make the exploration of new
features `by accident' or by ambitious curiosity less likely. I think
introducing an expert mode (is the plain and simple org-mode not
already quite for experts already?) a bad thing.

Then the semantics of `expert' come around. Expert in what field?
Organisation? Elisp? Time-clocking? Org-mode key bindings? There must
be over 5 different experts in using org-mode, which may be even
overlapping.

Personally I don't mind superfluous messages in GNU Emacs, if any.
They disappear fast enough and don't appear to slow down things;
though I might be wrong here of course.

Last, but not least, org-mode users are honest people, at least to
themselves they are, they must be! Many of them will have trouble
admitting they're an expert in org-mode; they won't tick the
box. They'll miss features they would otherwise try. 

Org-mode is the best invention since sliced bread and if not, GNU
Emacs is, keep up the good work!
 
many regards,

Joost Helberg

>>>>> "Bastien" == Bastien  <address@hidden> writes:
 > Subject: [O] Org expert mode?
 > From: Bastien <address@hidden>
 > To: address@hidden
 > Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:05:32 +0100

 > Hi all,

 > Org tries to stay as simple/accessible as possible for newbie and as
 > complete/flexible as possible for power users.

 > The documentation and the UI are central for this: the documentation
 > should promote core features, document complex ones, and give pointers
 > on how to hack Org -- it does that already IMO; the UI should give
 > access to core features and give hints on complex ones, so that the
 > user can learn more.

 > I've just added the ability to run a custom function for bulk agenda
 > actions (thanks to Puneeth for the patch!)  This is clearly for power
 > users -- or those who are willing to take the time to find functions
 > that we might document in Worg.

 > So I naturally thought of something like an "Org Expert mode": when
 > turned off, the UI would *not* give access to complex features and
 > perhaps display more helpful messages on simple ones; when turned on,
 > Org would have a less verbose UI (think of the C-c C-e window, do we
 > really want to *read* it all the times?) and give access to all the
 > complex features.

 > This is really just a call for ideas/comments -- I wonder if people
 > already came accross such an idea and and what they think.

 > I'm myself not convinced: it's a good thing that Org doesn't need an
 > Expert mode so far, it means newbies are not confused by the UI, and
 > experts are not frustrated by it either.  But I expect neat features 
 > can emerge from the discussion.

 > Thanks for your thoughts!

 > -- 
 >  Bastien


-- 
Snow B.V.        http://snow.nl