I don't even recommend emacs anymore when someone asks me for a good editor, because they always complain about emacs being too foreign, non-standard, etc.
This newbie mode would be a simple command which when activated would change default emacs settings, keybindings to as similar to a more usual editor as possible.
This would include for example keybindings which are familiar for new users:
F1 for help, F2 for save file, F3 for load file, etc.
Menus should be activated with Alt+<key>, e.g. Alt-F for File menu. I know that Alt-F (Meta-F) is forward word, but I don't think a newbie would miss it too much. pc-selection-mode should be the default, so that he can move around with arrows + ctrl, shift, etc.
I know there could be a problem with these bindings if emacs is run in a terminal, but newbies rarely do that, a graphical environment is more common nowadays.
Useful general settings should be turned on by default. column numbers, global font lock, etc.
So I'd like a single command which I could put into a newbies .emacs file:
(newbie-mode)
and this would set everything, so that a new user can perform any simple editing operation using only the knowledge he brought from other systems/editors. And when he sees that emacs is not the editor from hell then he might be more interested to learn more about it.
Anyone thinks it's a good idea?
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