Re: GNU Emacs raison d'etre

[T.V Raman]

"Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com> writes:
People often complain of "steep learning curves" as being "bad", but
that is a value judgement.

If you want to go  high, I prefer a steep curve to a flat plain -- and
metaphors aside, so-called easy-to-learn systems  usually dont get their
users anywhere very fast. A better goal is perhaps "fun-to-learn"
> On Thu, 28 May 2020 13:37:19 -0400 Stefan Monnier
> <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:
>> > What does C-g mean?  
>> 
>> For me, the intuition is a sound that I find hard to transcribe into
>> ASCII but could be something like "ghuhuh!" with the accent on the
>> second "u" and a good dose of frustration sprinkled throughout ;-)
>
> And besides, it doesn't matter where C-g comes from. Thousands and
> thousands of people memorized it. I memorized it in 1983. My fingers
> will not do anything else at this point.
>
> Any other key sequence would, regardless, be just as arbitrary and
> capricious, and not any easier to learn for newcomers.
>
> It is the nature of a system like Emacs that the learning curve is
> extremely steep, but once you have crossed it, you work far more
> efficiently than you did before you assaulted it.
>
> Perry

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