peter@ora.UUCP (Peter Mui) (06/22/89)
Thanks to all of you (actually, 32 of you) who responded to my questions about writing an emacs book. Here's a summary of the more discussed points: 1) GNU Emacs was the overwhelming favorite. After GNU, uEmacs, Freemacs, and Jove were most often mentioned, in that order. Unipress (Gosling) Emacs was surprisingly absent. 2) There were a large number of "don't bother"s who felt that the existing documentation, combined with the on-line tutorials and on-line help, was quite adequate. 3) Some areas noted for improved documentation: writing macro extensions in the different macro languages ^ lots of people commented about this ^ examples showing the same "customization" in different languages summary charts of the standard key bindings for different versions a sample .emacs default file w/ explanation of its parts mapping function keys on popular keyboards a "How Do I...?" section how to obtain the various versions a history of emacs An oft-mentioned GNU-specific gripe is that there is a large intuitive leap between the two books FSF produces, the GNU Emacs manual and the ELISP Programmer's Manual. Some people mentioned that FSF was planning to release a document that filled this void soon. There was also concern expressed about undermining the FSF with a for-profit book with parts about GNU. We're sensitive to this concern, and won't do an emacs book without coming to some agreement with FSF first. Again, thanks. If you've got more suggestions or comments, send me e-mail. -peter -- Peter Mui: (617) 354-5800 O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 90 Sherman Street, Cambridge, MA 02140 UUCP: uunet!ora!peter ARPA: peter@ora.uu.net
lyndon@cs.AthabascaU.CA (Lyndon Nerenberg) (06/27/89)
In article <1576@ora.UUCP> peter@ora.UUCP (Peter Mui) writes: >There was also concern expressed about undermining the FSF with a >for-profit book with parts about GNU. >We're sensitive to this concern, and won't do an emacs book without >coming to some agreement with FSF first. How about donating the profits from the sales of this book to the FSF? -- Lyndon Nerenberg VE6BBM / Computing Services / Athabasca University {alberta,decwrl,ncc}!atha!lyndon || lyndon@cs.AthabascaU.CA