RE: Easy/Possible to globally change prompt strings of messages? e.g. changing find-file's prompt string from "Find file:" to "open file:" ?

[Drew Adams]

> > OK.  Thanks everyone for your help.  I think I'll just get used to "Find
> > file" for now. :)
> 
> For now.  Yeah, sure.
> And in five years, when some Emacs newbie asks you about all those
> strange terms, you'll say: "Young \(wo\)?man, forget about the newspeak
> of opening files in panes, using tabs, cutting and pasting, moving the
> cursor and pressing Ctrl+F.  Instead, embrace the ancient wisdom of
> visiting files in windows, using buffers, killing and yanking, moving
> the point and pressing C-s."  Welcome to the rabbit hole.

Yup.  "Ancient wisdom" or not, rabbit hole or not, that's the Emacs
jargon.

Suppose you do change things locally to teach Emacs not to use its
own jargon etc. - and you can do so to different degrees, though it
might mean jumping through a few hoops (is it worth it?).

Then you have difficulty communicating with (e.g., helping) others,
because that jargon is what is used by the application itself and its
community.

For better or worse.  Learn to speak Emacs - that's my advice.  Whether
you think it represents "ancient wisdom" or not.  And if you feel strongly
about some bit of jargon, then argue on emacs-devel@gnu.org to change it.