Subject: Re: bug#41403: A more user-friendly version of GNU Emacs

From: Stefan Kangas <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2021 13:57:33 -0700

Lars Ingebrigtsen <[email-masked]> writes:

>>> I guess, the key, M-x.  The refcard assumes that people know what it
>>> (meta) is.  It would probably good to explain it.
>>
>> Right, okay.  If that's it, I agree that it should probably be added.
>>
>> If we do that, we might as well explain that "C-" stands for "Ctrl" and
>> "S-" stands for "Shift" while we're at it.  (If there's enough space.)
>
> I don't think the refcard is the place to explain these keys -- the
> refcard is for quick lookup when you know the basics.
>
> The tutorial explains all this stuff, and that's the correct place, so
> I'm closing this bug report.

I took a look at the refcards, and it is pretty full of stuff already.

One thing caught my eye, namely this information:

    Starting Emacs
    To enter GNU Emacs 28, just type its name: emacs

This seems useless, for two reasons:
A) The overwhelming majority of users will click an icon to start Emacs.
B) Any other users will already know to type "emacs".

This leaves me wondering if putting a brief explanation of our strange
key conventions on there isn't a better use of space.