From 6738dce6a99f3863b5257e08a1af997349eb134d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Sacha Chua Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2020 00:49:30 -0400 Subject: First try at schedule --- 2020/schedule/21.md | 62 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 62 insertions(+) create mode 100644 2020/schedule/21.md (limited to '2020/schedule/21.md') diff --git a/2020/schedule/21.md b/2020/schedule/21.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d6e25070 --- /dev/null +++ b/2020/schedule/21.md @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +# On why most of the best features in eev look like 5-minute hacks +Saturday, Nov 28 2020, 5:03 PM - 5:43 PM +Eduardo Ochs + +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". + + + + +Back to the [[schedule]] + +All times are approximate, and we might shuffle talks around as needed. Please check https://emacsconf.org/2020 a few days before the start of the conference for instructions on how to watch and participate. + +[[!meta title="On why most of the best features in eev look like 5-minute hacks"]] -- cgit v1.2.3