[linux-audio-user] Usability vs Intuitability in Ardour

[Pete Bessman]

On Tue, 2005-07-26 at 06:29 -0700, eviltwin69 at cableone.net wrote:
>     Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrggggghhhhhh!  Not again.  Oh well, I might as well throw
> down too.  I started on UNIX with vi (and in response to a way earlier thread,
> not all of us started on Windoze - my first system was IBM OS-360, then on to
> various others, then UNIX).  When I first used vi I was blown away by the power
> of the thing.  Later I discovered Emacs.  I switched.  I still use vi if I want
> to do something small very quickly (I hate waiting for Xemacs start up).  If I'm
> doing serious coding I use Xemacs just because it is much, much more powerful. 
> So, the old saw about people staying with what they know isn't always true.  I
> just try to use the right tool for the job.  Oh, I also use ed and sed ;-)

I started off with VI cuz it was small and L337.  Then I "graduated" to
emacs because it was all-powerful and L337.  And now I can't wait for
anjuta2 to stabilize.  IMHO, regardless of what emacs may be capable of
doing, what it actually does is not exactly earth shaking.

"Project Management"
M-x compile
C-x `
M-x gdb
C-x 4 a

Bow before the "mighty" emacs IDE.  And don't tell me about speedbar
(it's weak) or CEDT (they don't collectively work).

"Syntax Highlighting and Indentation"
I'll grant you that the C mode is the absolute best there is, hands
down.  But, that's all I'll grant you.  Every other mode I've used has
sucked, resulting in varying degrees of frustration.  My once normal
human skull is now horribly disfigured from headbutting the floor as a
result of the fit of rage that the PHP mode threw me into.

>From this, I deduce that there isn't anything about the design of emacs
that makes it inherently more adept at handling different file formats
than any other syntax-highlighter-and-indenter.  

"Extensible"
LISP.  Friggin' lisp.  Whatever.  I fail to see what great and wonderful
things this great and wonderful language has enabled Emacs to accomplish
that would otherwise be an exercise in madness.  Regexp find and
replace?  Eh heh.

Man, I'll save my rage for a proper blog rant on this.  Suffice it to
say, I drank the koolaid for years.  I got my hard copy of the manual
--- read it cover to cover.  The reference card is sitting right in
front me.  I run a hand coded .emacs file.  I'm probably familiar with
roughly 98% of all the concepts in emacs, and I know more keybindings
than ought to be humanly possibly.  I use to read mail, news, and
webpages in emacs.  It was my shell.  It was my calendar.  It was my
address book.  I even suffered through learning ELISP.

And what do I have to show for it?  I'm like a retarded monkey when I
try to interact with the rest of my GNOME desktop.  You know, the one
with the nice widget set, anti-aliased fonts, and an uncluttered UI.
This is also the GNOME that is much more "modal" than emacs --- I just
click on "applications" and select a program to perform whatever task
I'm trying to accomplish.

One true editor... whatever.  This is an idea who's time has long since
passed.  I think Emacs has achieved anachronism status --- and speaking
only for myself, I'm nothing short of elated to move on.

Oh, yeah, and VI is patent schizophrenic insanity.  This is the word of
the lord.  Don't question it.

Peace out,

-Pete "I Love GEdit" Bessman