Re: Introduction and proposed contribution

[Jason White <jason@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Stephen Cagle <samedhi@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
 
> Just some random things to consider:
> Will emacspeak ever be useful to less technically inclined people? That is,
> will it always primarily be used by programmers and other technical persons
> who use emacs? Is it possible to get less technical people to use emacs? Is
> it worthwhile?

My own opinion is that there are two likely audiences here.

1. People who are already technically knowledgeable, but new to Emacs and
Emacspeak.

2. Beginners in both UNIX and Emacs, who are not technically knowledgeable
now, but who want to become so in order to gain the benefits of technology
that come with skill and competence. In other words, they want to move out of
the "non-technical end user" category because they realize that knowledge is
better than ignorance and that one can be so much more productive and
effective by learning to use powerful software tools.

Those who really aren't interested in learning and who don't enjoy it aren't
likely to stay around; I think that having the right attitude is of the
greatest importance, aside from fulfilling fundamental prerequisites such as
good language and literacy skills and the ability to type properly.

For people who think primarily in terms of text and language, there's nothing
that equals, let alone surpasses, the UNIX tradition, and Emacs is a superb
environment in which to gain the benefits.

There is more that I could say about learning Linux/UNIX in general, but it
would be off-topic for this list, so I'll leave it there for now.

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