> New users should be encouraged to make those changes themselves if they feel the need to.
It’s not like that any more. People don’t want to write a lot of lisp configuration as soon as they pick up a new editor; there are too many good alternatives out there. For programmers working in multiple languages, VSCode is now superior because it supports LSP fantastically for many languages (source: used emacs daily for 20 years, programming for 20 years).
I agree emacs is special. And I think you and I would agree on a lot of this: I wish emacs would embrace its identity as a sharp-edged and extremely powerful tool for programmers and stop messing around trying to be friendly to new users. But that doesn’t mean having bad/antiquated defaults.We need to attract new programmers for they will be the future maintainers of emacs. (Once we move emacs development to github/gitlab and away from a bunch of old men arguing on emacs-devel).
It’s not like that any more. People don’t want to write a lot of lisp configuration as soon as they pick up a new editor; there are too many good alternatives out there. For programmers working in multiple languages, VSCode is now superior because it supports LSP fantastically for many languages (source: used emacs daily for 20 years, programming for 20 years).
I agree emacs is special. And I think you and I would agree on a lot of this: I wish emacs would embrace its identity as a sharp-edged and extremely powerful tool for programmers and stop messing around trying to be friendly to new users. But that doesn’t mean having bad/antiquated defaults.We need to attract new programmers for they will be the future maintainers of emacs. (Once we move emacs development to github/gitlab and away from a bunch of old men arguing on emacs-devel).
See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28185317 for my views on future emacs.