Re: SEUL: SEOL Text EDITOR

[Sailesh Krishnamurthy <sailesh@meer.net>]

john@dhh.gt.org wrote:

> Sailesh Krishnamurthy wrote:
> > Won't it be possible to have an "edit" mode in Emacs that would serve this
> > purpose ?
>
> It probably has such a mode, but emacs is much too large for this purpose.
> The default editor must be small enough to go on a rescue floppy.

Well if emacs is too large, there are quite a few "emacs-like" editors like joe
and jed which are small enough, and offer a comfortable home for a new user.
Definitely more comfortable than vi.

> > Hehe.  It would take the average user 3.732 years to learn emacs.
>
> If she approached it without prejudice, she would learn it about as quickly

In any case, I feel that people often underestimate the abilities of the
average user. I'm not saying that I feel the average user is willing to make an
effort .. just that results are often surprising.

This is just an aside .. not that I think the Seul project is not worth
pursuing: Some years back, while I was an undergraduate student in India, I
spent a semester in a theoretical research institute - one that had only
mathematicians and theoretical computer scientists. We had a bunch of x86 based
machines and of course had Linux on all of 'em (Linux is very popular in the
academic community in India).  There was a seceratary who worked at the
institute - she had never used a computer before .. all she knew was how to
type. In 2 months time she was typing all the older researcher's paper in LaTeX
with Emacs ! In fact, although I had been using LaTeX for a year,  she would
always be able to help me with my LaTeX problems - and she was not even
particularly fluent with english. Amazing what people can do if they read
manuals.

> as any other complex application.  Besides, he is suggesting an 'edit' mode
> that would come up automatically.  The user need never know she is using
> emacs.

Exactly.

--
Cheers
Sailesh (http://www.meer.net/~sailesh)
Ph: (408) 257-7314