Re: Emacs Book Vs Emacs Manuals

[Rusi]

On Sunday, May 10, 2015 at 8:18:20 AM UTC+5:30, Bob Proulx wrote:
> Marcin Borkowski wrote:
> > Bob Proulx wrote:
> > > A student says that they really want to learn Calculus.  They know
> > > that Calculus is very powerful and can be used to solve many problems.
> > > I suggest that they learn Arithmetic first.  They respond,
> > > "Arithmetic!  Have you learned Arithmetic?  Arithmetic is old.  Should
> > > I learn Arithmetic?  For example, will Arithmetic talk about
> > > Calculus?"
> > 
> > Nice try;-).  But this analogy is flawed: software, unlike mathematical
> > theories, is subject to change.
> 
> Has emacs changed that much?  I don't think it has.  It is still very
> much the same.

Sad but true

After 20 years of using, teaching with, and making my students use emacs,
for the first time this year I taught python using Idle rather than emacs.
Some nuisances... C-a now means Select-all whereas my nerve-pathways know it as
Beginning-of-line etc etc
Also some sadness... however one needs to get real and selling emacs to students
has led to lot of funny looks and some significant hostility.

The tutorial with C-f C-b... for cursor movements was I guess the last straw

What I describe may sound like exaggeration but that's only because I am trying 
to
reconstruct what happens between noob and emacs when I am not around.

Student starts reading tutorial and sees the C-f C-b stuff:

- Some follow it wonder about the weirdness but then get on with it
- Some just use cursor keys like the rest of the planet ignore the C-f C-b 
stuff and get on with it
- But a few notice that cursor keys work as they should but is not documented
and are a bit confused/bewildered
- And of those few, a few get real HOSTILE

Now if the cursor-keys didn't work it would not be so bad
And ideal would be for them to work AND be documented
But works and NOT documented/demoed in tutorial... and there are serious 
allegations of ATTITUDE!

[And I am implicated with the emacs-devs :-) ]