Re: A proposal for a friendlier Emacs

[Andrea Corallo]

ams@gnu.org (Alfred M. Szmidt) writes:

>    >    I, for one, would be happy to have a one-click option to set a bunch
>    >    of reasonable defaults whenever I start Emacs on a new device.
>    >
>    > And using the splash screen, that exact possibility is also there.  So
>    > nothing is lost.
>
>    Yes, something is lost.  No matter how you go about doing it, it is
>    clear that it will be significantly less visible.  That's the entire
>    reason why you are arguing for it, if I understand correctly.
>
> What is lost exactly?  You have the _exact_ same information, plus
> some (that of a on-click setup).  Having a special new-user dialog
> would be a loss in information since it would hide the splash screen
> which provides valuable information for new and old users alike.
>
> If users don't read the normal splash screen, there is no reason to
> expect them to look at another "setup screen".

I suspect they probably don't read it because there is too much
information already, adding more would just make it worst.

>    I claim that opening Emacs on new accounts with no .emacs will be
>    infrequent for most users.  
>
> Just today I accessed four different machines where I had never logged
> in (mainly for development stuff, where the machines run different
> operating systems, often new VMs setup for whatever).  Sometimes it is
> accessing the machine as root, sometimes it is as my self.

Which _exact_ part of the spash screen have you used in this process?
How this proposed menu would have made harder your job today?