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diff --git a/2020/info/21.md b/2020/info/21.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..96165e9e --- /dev/null +++ b/2020/info/21.md @@ -0,0 +1,92 @@ +# On why most of the best features in eev look like 5-minute hacks +Eduardo Ochs + +[[!template id=vid src="https://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/emacsconf/2020/emacsconf-2020--21-on-why-most-of-the-best-features-in-eev-look-like-5-minute-hacks--eduardo-ochs.webm" subtitles="/2020/subtitles/emacsconf-2020--21-on-why-most-of-the-best-features-in-eev-look-like-5-minute-hacks--eduardo-ochs.vtt"]] +[Download compressed .webm video (92.9M)](https://media.emacsconf.org/2020/emacsconf-2020--21-on-why-most-of-the-best-features-in-eev-look-like-5-minute-hacks--eduardo-ochs--compressed32.webm) +[Download compressed .webm video (43.9M, highly compressed)](https://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/emacsconf/2020/smaller/emacsconf-2020--21-on-why-most-of-the-best-features-in-eev-look-like-5-minute-hacks--eduardo-ochs--vp9-q56-video-original-audio.webm) + +In the last months there were several hundreds of messages in +emacs-devel in threads with names like "A proposal for a friendlier +Emacs", "How to make Emacs popular again", and "Interactive guide for +new users". On the one hand I am absolutely sure that eev is very +good answer to all these themes; on the other hand I know that eev is +based on some design decisions that offend most people used to modern, +"user-friendly" interfaces - and I feel that at this moment mentions +to eev in those discussions in emacs-devel would not be welcome. + +In this talk I will start by presenting very quickly the main "killer +features" of eev - namely: + +1. Elisp hyperlinks, + +2. interactive tutorials that can be navigated with just three keys, + +3. non-invasiveness - people can easily turn eev on for only five + minutes each week, play with it a bit, and then turn it off, + +4. high discoverability factor, + +5. a way to create "hyperlinks to here", + +6. hyperlinks to specific points in PDF documents and video files - + i.e., to specific pages, strings, and timemarks, + +7. a way to control shell-like programs ("eepitch"), and + +8. an Elisp tutorial, + +and after that I will present the design decisions behind eev, in two +parts: + +1. eev is a very thin layer above Emacs-the-Lisp-environment; it is + as simple as possible, but in the sense of "simple" that was used + in Forth, and that is not very familiar today. + +2. Very often when I am using Emacs - which is my main interface + with the system - I realize that I can automate some task that I + just did by hand twice of thrice; and that I should do that, + because automating that would be both easy and fun. Over the + years I experimented with several ways of automating tasks, + refined some of these ways a lot, and found a certain "best" + style that, again, usually offends people who are accustomed with + the modern ideas of user-friendliness. In this style, used in + most template-based functions in eev, both textual documentation + and error-handling are kept to a minimum. I will show how, and + why, eev makes this style works so well, and how users can create + their own templated functions very quickly - as "5-minute hacks". + +<!-- from the pad ---> + +- Actual start and end time (EST): Start: 2020-11-28T11.45.20; End: + 2020-11-28T12.26.00 + +# Questions + +## Is eev like GNU hyperbole? (from karthink in #emacsconf) +[rswgnu] I know Eduardo is exploring using Hyperbole with eev and we +will work with him to help him integrate its features. + +## Are there variants of pos-spec-list that aren't search based? E.g., find buffer + run some other command + copy results? +I guess this is partly answered, with Xpdf example. + +Take a look here: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOAqBc42Gg8#t=32m05s> + +## I didn't quite follow the find-here-links demo, can you describe that once more slowly? +I just added links to the tutorials about find-here-links and refining +hyperlinks to the bottom of this page: +<http://angg.twu.net/emacsconf2020.html> - hope that helps! + +## What are the books/readings that inspired you about usability again? +Here are some: "Software Tools" by Kernighan and Plauger, the article +about "Little Languages" in Jon Bentley's "More Programming Pearls", a +commercial Forth called HS-Forth, and "Exploring Expect" by Don Libes. + +# Notes +- eev homepage: <https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/EevMode> | + <http://angg.twu.net/#eev>. +- find-video open a video with a time stamp as an input argument. +- How to record executable notes with eev - and how to play them back + <https://emacsconf.org/2019/talks/27/>. +- Anchors (not explained in the talk) + <http://angg.twu.net/eev-intros/find-eev-quick-intro.html#8>. +- <http://angg.twu.net/emacsconf2020.html> |