Re: Best advice for new user

[Jude DaShiell <dashielljt@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The only learning curves I have any problem with are the unreasonable
ones.  As a recent example, the readme documents in the sendmail package
come to mind.  I fail to consider either emacs or emacspeak as
unreasonable learning curves though.  Neither makes the new user reach so
far above their head to get a hand hold and move along.On Tue, 22 Apr
2003, Bill Barry wrote:

> Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 09:45:09 -0700
> From: Bill Barry <barryb@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: emacspeak@xxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: Best advice for new user
> Resent-Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 12:47:53 -0400 (EDT)
> Resent-From: emacspeak@xxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Well I guess the best advice for anyone starting out is to really
> recognize that it is called a learning curve for a reason.
> That what you learn is built on what you have learned before and
> that the more you know the faster you can learn and the opposite
> that the less you know the slower you can go.
> One good way to climb a learning curve is to start out slow and
> at each stage make sure you have a good grasp of what is going
> on before climbing to the next level that way the base you are
> building on is sound. Don't try to learn email before you know
> how to open and close a file for instance.
>
> For the emacs case, maybe start out by opening a file, and closing
> it. Then after your father has mastered that he can open a file, edit it
> close it etc. You get the idea. Remember that from the outside
> it might look like you are going slow, but to the person learning
> it always looks like you are going fast.
>
> Bill Barry
>
> On Sun, Apr 20, 2003 at 11:45:13PM -0400, Patrick Wiseman wrote:
> > Hello:
> >
> > I'm about to try to introduce my dad to emacspeak; he's an octogenarian,
> > smart, not afraid of a challenge, has peripheral vision in one eye, and,
> > before he lost most of his vision, loved Googling and email.  I'd like to
> > give both back to him.
> >
> > The emacs learning curve is steep.  Any suggestions about how I can set
> > things up to make it as easy as possible for my Dad to get started?
> >
> > Patrick
> >
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