Re: A proposal for a friendlier Emacs

[Nicola Manca]

On 17/09/20 11:07, Gregory Heytings wrote:
> Hi Nicola,
>
> Thanks for your proposal!
>
> > What about having a startup screen, opening only if no .emacs or other 
> > user configuration file is found just saying (the text is just an 
> > example):
> >
> > Welcome!
> > This is the first time you run Emacs, please choose how to proceed:
> >
> > [] Go Vanilla!
> >  (standard defaults, no customizations)
> >
> > [] Start Configuration Wizard
> >  (set-up your .emacs configuration file interactively)
> >
> > [] Try Emacs in enhanced-mode
> >  (run with a predefined configuration showing emacs potential)
>
> That's a very good suggestion, thank you!  I think it would be better to 
> invert options 2 et 3, with something like:

I've no strong opinion about that :)

> [] Go Vanilla!
> [] Choose a predefined configuration
> [] Create your own configuration
>
> Option 2 would present the user with a list of predefined configuration 
> sets: "doom", "quake", "vscode", ...

This is nice, but I think it is better to focus on something that is 
rapidly achievable and then maybe improve it. Andrea's suggestion is 
based entirely on CORE features, while I fear that mimic VScode or Doom 
may require MELPA.

> Option 3 would give the user a way to create a more refined configuration.
>
> > This solution would prevent the problem of passing --modern to the 
> > emacs exacutable and, beyond that, it could also correspond to emacs 
> > -Q, since choosing "Vanilla" would result in a normal clean startup.
>
> IMO this screen should be skipped when the option -Q or -q is passed to 
> Emacs.

I don't know. I think this is a way to somehow "reset" emacs or let 
someone else to try it on your own computer without having to face a 
personalized configuration. In such a away when he/she will install 
emacs will have the same user experience.

Maybe emacs -Q coud be just as now and "emacs" could start the splash 
screen if no configuration is found.

Nicola