Re: Interactive guide for new users (was: Re: Gather a list of confusions beginner tend to have)

[Gregory Heytings]

> > And I still think that a short "guided tour" would be useful at the 
> > end: what/where is the minibuffer and what is its purpose, what does 
> > the mode-line contain, how to find help (here I would list C-h m, C-h 
> > p, C-h k / C-h w / C-h a, C-h l, C-h ?), …
>
> I agree, the current tutorial is a bit verbose (not that I didn’t read 
> it when I started using Emacs, but…). A shorter tutorial introducing the 
> most important bindings and operations would be helpful (I imagine).

It should not just be "shorter", it should be *really* short.  I've just 
read it again, for a new user it is almost useless.  I think the following 
two keybindings would suffice: "C-x 1" and "C-g".  And perhaps the four 
following ones to give the new user a sense of what using C-<something> 
and M-<something> is: "M-f and M-b", "C-a and C-e".  Note that these four 
keybindings are also on M-left and M-right and home and end, which is what 
a new user would use (and it would work).

I would perhaps also add "M-%", which is very useful and not documented in 
the tutorial.

All this could be done in two screens I think.