Re: Org Tutorials need more structure

[Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl>]

Dnia 2013-10-01, o godz. 13:34:17
David Rogers <davidandrewrogers@gmail.com> napisał(a):

> Suvayu Ali <fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > Hi Joseph,
> >
> > On Sat, Sep 28, 2013 at 09:22:02AM +0200, Joseph Vidal-Rosset wrote:
> >> 
> >> Example: I am presently mainly interested to see if it is possible
> >> to use gnus to write a scientific letter with all conveniences of
> >> texlive. Of course I can open a tex file with letter class and
> >> send to my colleague a pdf file. But it would be more convenient
> >> to write an email and using conversions to html and png images to
> >> send to him directly this email. I guess it is possilbe to do it
> >> with gnus. But the documentation is esoteric: I hear about links,
> >> but how it works concretly with example understanble by a
> >> newby ...  mystery. It is therefore frustrating and quickly
> >> discouraging.
> >
> > Your example is not beginner's tutorial at all!  Nor is it something
> > that the manual can cover.  For esoteric/specific needs like this
> > "advanced tutorials" are more appropriate.
> 
> Part of this situation, part of what can be improved about the
> tutorials, is that a beginner cannot know whether his request belongs
> in a beginner's tutorial or not. Beginners cannot know ahead of time
> what's hard and what's easy, and beginners often wonder "Can it do
> that amazing thing I've been wishing I could do?" when they see a
> piece of software that's new to them.

Well, in case of Org-mode, surprisingly often the answer is "Yes, it
can." ;)

> Face it - Org-mode is ALREADY esoteric in itself, so it's quite
> reasonable that beginners will continue to expect it to be able to do
> esoteric things that don't happen to be the ones that are already
> easy - unless there's a convenient way for them to find out.

I woudn't call Org-mode "esoteric".  For Emacs users, it is quite a
natural thing.  For non-Emacs-users, maybe, but still, its simplicity
and newbie-friendliness is amazing (deceptively, I'd call it;)).

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Adam Mickiewicz University