From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: 42 147 Subject: Re: converting people to Emacs and org-mode Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2013 19:59:08 -0400 Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=089e01494226d8340c04d9f65696 Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:58504) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UPiRW-0007ts-OE for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 09 Apr 2013 19:59:16 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UPiRT-000706-LL for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 09 Apr 2013 19:59:14 -0400 Received: from mail-la0-x22b.google.com ([2a00:1450:4010:c03::22b]:55421) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1UPiRT-0006x2-Cc for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 09 Apr 2013 19:59:11 -0400 Received: by mail-la0-f43.google.com with SMTP id ek20so6990000lab.30 for ; Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:59:09 -0700 (PDT) List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Org Mode --089e01494226d8340c04d9f65696 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > Not when they're your employees! > Only half joking, +1 for the serious half. Totalitarianism is underrated. > this confirms that different people have wildly different usage patterns That is absolutely true. I didn't care about org-mode until a friend showed me his Shakespeare.org file. I pressed tab on "Shakespeare" and it was like hearing the Master of Puppets opening riff for the first time. I've had one successful convert of a total non-programmer. He was studying German, and I'd watch him in Firefox with ten tabs open trying to translate a passage of Kritik der Reinen Vernunft. So then I showed him how to split the screen in Emacs -- German original on top, English on the bottom -- and how to fetch definitions on the fly from a dictionary server. Got him hooked in a second. I agree that working someone through Windows poses unique problems. I had to debase myself and fire up Windows for the first time in years. However, on the issue of tutorials, I did save my entire IM logs. It might be an interesting presentation technique -- to read a real, natural step-by-step working through of Emacs with someone completely computer illiterate. It took two hours to get him to map a shortcut to a particular file and get it to work. And there is so much knowledge and intuition we take for granted: for example, to a lot of computer illiterate people, a find-file function is "magical." So is a .emacs. He didn't understand why he could newline arbitrarily before inserting new code, e.g., "So wait, why is this file just empty? How does writing stuff here do anything to Emacs?" It was very interesting psychologically to remind oneself of this state of mind. To most people a program is a shortcut icon on the desktop, not a bunch of disparate files that coalesce into something like Emacs. --089e01494226d8340c04d9f65696 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 
> Not when they're your employees!

> Only half joking,

+1 for the serious half. Totalitarianism is underrated.

> this confirms that different people have wildly different usage patterns


That is absolutely true. I didn't care about org-mode until a friend showed
me his Shakespeare.org file. I pressed tab on "Shakespeare" and it was like
hearing the Master of Puppets opening riff for the first time.


I've had one successful convert of a total non-programmer. He was studying
German, and I'd watch him in Firefox with ten tabs open trying to translate
a passage of Kritik der Reinen Vernunft. So then I showed him how to split

the screen in Emacs -- German original on top, English on the bottom -- and
how to fetch definitions on the fly from a dictionary server. Got him
hooked in a second.

I agree that working someone through Windows poses unique problems. I had

to debase myself and fire up Windows for the first time in years.

However, on the issue of tutorials, I did save my entire IM logs. It might
be an interesting presentation technique -- to read a real, natural

step-by-step working through of Emacs with someone completely computer
illiterate. It took two hours to get him to map a shortcut to a particular
file and get it to work. And there is so much knowledge and intuition we

take for granted: for example, to a lot of computer illiterate people, a
find-file function is "magical." So is a .emacs. He didn't understand why
he could newline arbitrarily before inserting new code, e.g., "So wait, why

is this file just empty? How does writing stuff here do anything to Emacs?"
It was very interesting psychologically to remind oneself of this state of
mind. To most people a program is a shortcut icon on the desktop, not a

bunch of disparate files that coalesce into something like Emacs.
--089e01494226d8340c04d9f65696--