From pycyn@aol.com Mon Sep 04 18:07:28 2000 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 20212 invoked from network); 5 Sep 2000 01:07:28 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by m4.onelist.org with QMQP; 5 Sep 2000 01:07:28 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO imo-d01.mx.aol.com) (205.188.157.33) by mta1 with SMTP; 5 Sep 2000 01:07:28 -0000 Received: from Pycyn@aol.com by imo-d01.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v28.15.) id a.b7.680eeca (658) for ; Mon, 4 Sep 2000 21:07:23 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2000 21:07:23 EDT Subject: RE: emacs, etc. To: lojban@egroups.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 3.0 16-bit for Windows sub 41 From: pycyn@aol.com I think the real difference between "normal people" and "geeks" (not terms I thought I used -- but if the shoe fits,...) is not preparation but goal. As an academic, I know perhaps a half-dozen people who need and use emacs; I know at least an equal number who have it because it is cute or powerful or chic and who play with it but never use more than an electric typewriter's worth of it for doing their work. I used to collect programming languages the same way -- except that, with the exception of SNOBOL -- their claims to do something better or easier or... all proved illusory (i.e., outright lies); I have tried any new ones lately to see whether truth has improved. As for the cost of Windows, they are excessive in some sense, though in the US, Windows tends to come with the computer (or, looking realistically at prices, the computer comes with the Windows and the rest of the package). And here also, students tend to have access to Windows machines and tools, even in a low tax state like Missouri (the companies tend to more or less give the critters to the university). In any case, the thousandfold plus increase in potential users does make Windows design appealing. It would be nice -- going back to programming languages -- if at least they had gotten standardized enough that a program (I mean just the marks on paper or screen) written in one environment would actually run as well in another environment of the same name -- stories of trying to take a BASIC program from CPM to DOS spring to mind.