Re: Re: org-mode tutorial questionaire

["Thomas S. Dye" <tsd@tsdye.com>]

On Mar 23, 2010, at 10:50 AM, Friedrich Delgado Friedrichs wrote:

> Hi
>
> Alexander Poslavsky schrieb:
>>> I was wondering if you could elaborate on the following. Are you
>>> suggesting that new users should never use M-x customize?
>> Well, I don't know about anybody else, but I *never* use it. I  
>> think it is awful. But then, what do I know….
> ---Zitatende---
>
> Maybe that's a bit opinionated for a tutorial then. I do use M-x
> customize and I believe it has its merits.
>
> -- 
>        Friedrich Delgado Friedrichs <friedel@nomaden.org>
>                             TauPan on Ircnet and Freenode ;)
>

Aloha all,

I think Alexander's manual is an excellent start and will be helpful  
to newbies.

To be successful, the manual will have to make many choices for the  
newbie, among them whether or not to use customize.  It will be very  
different from the usual manual, which is designed to expose full  
complexity.

IMHO, the goal of describing a sensible path to productive use of Org- 
mode should be the highest priority.  When there is the urge to say to  
the newbie, "you can do this or that", it should be avoided.  Instead,  
the template should be "do it this way."

I agree with Friedrich that customize has merits (though I don't use  
it).  I like Alexander's vivid language, but agree with Friedrich that  
it doesn't need to be so opinionated in this case.  Perhaps the  
template for these alternate paths might be a footnote "there is  
[[another way][link]] to do this."

All the best,
Tom