As indicated in another thread, we Leonistas have for years tried (and failed!) to describe just why we are so excited about Leo.
It's vital that we be able to do so in a few words. In this "workshop" I'll allow myself to start with a more "relaxed" exploration. In later posts here I'll attempt to distill the message. Steve Litt's vital insights in the "Approaching Leo" thread are another reason why so few people use Leo. The combination of breakthroughs in describing Leo and teaching people how to use Leo is truly exciting. I am writing this in the middle of the night, too excited to sleep. I am starting to get inklings about what we all have missed for so long: Leo's core benefits. The fundamental Aha: we *must not* confuse benefits with features!! The fundamental benefits, as any marketer will tell you, are "saves time and saves money". To this we can add, "makes you happy". You could say that that's why "selling the sizzle" works: it hints at happiness. The recent insight that clones accelerate work flow means, fundamentally, that Leo saves time. But *how* does Leo save time? By making programming and data manipulation (such as writing books) much easier. So that's Leo's true, fundamental benefit: **Leo makes our digital life much easier**, and it does so in new ways, **by changing what we do, not just how we do it**. As a result, **we really are happier** The symptoms are excitement and enthusiasm. If you doubt this, read Leo's testimonials. Leo is not, fundamentally, about manipulating text. It is about manipulating organization. As a result, it is *stupendously easier* to manipulate designs (and slideshows, and chapters in a book, and sections in documentation, etc!) Leo's core benefits arise from Leo's unique features: clones, DAG's, outline-oriented markup, directives and API (generators, positions, vnodes et al.) and (for the initiated!) fantastic customization features, especially @button and plugins. Oh yes, and the viewrendered pane for wysiwyg rendering of rST. One more thing: the fundamental, unbreakable link between headlines and body text is an essential feature. Headlines naturally describe bodies. Headlines are metadata. This is what makes @button, @test and all the rest work! These are the building blocks of pithy descriptions of what makes Leo special. Emacs org mode and vimoutline mode have *none* of Leo's key features, and so *can not possibly* deliver *any* of Leo's key benefits. It's just that simple. It's very late (or too early ;-) I'll refine this later today, but I think this post describes, for the first time ever, Leo's key benefits, completely distinct from Leo's unique features. Newbies are not going to understand Leo's key benefits in detail without *some* understanding of Leo's unique features. This is where Steve Litt's eye-opening insights will be crucial. Exciting times for Leo, but for me it's time for bed ;-) Edward -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to leo-editor+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to leo-editor@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
