From 6b4bafedbc76ea32228e27d94eeee8da25bf91f0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Eli Zaretskii Date: Fri, 18 May 2018 09:31:24 +0300 Subject: [PATCH] ; Add a comment to emacs-lisp-intro.texi * doc/lispintro/emacs-lisp-intro.texi: Add a comment with the rationale for the manual's seemingly too large size. --- doc/lispintro/emacs-lisp-intro.texi | 25 +++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 25 insertions(+) diff --git a/doc/lispintro/emacs-lisp-intro.texi b/doc/lispintro/emacs-lisp-intro.texi index ebc4c7f009b..1a3081ca9f0 100644 --- a/doc/lispintro/emacs-lisp-intro.texi +++ b/doc/lispintro/emacs-lisp-intro.texi @@ -198,6 +198,31 @@ supports it in developing GNU and promoting software freedom.'' @end ifset @end ifnothtml +@c If you think this manual is too large for an introduction, please +@c consider this email exchange: +@c +@c >> The intro is almost 300 pages in full. I had expected 60 pages. +@c > +@c > This is an important point in its own right. Could you +@c > write a simplified introduction that is only 50 pages or so? +@c > That would be helpful to many potential users, I'd think. +@c +@c > The problem with the introduction is that it was written when +@c > programming was only starting to be a skill "normal" people could +@c > have access to. So the text is extremely verbose and is +@c > sometimes hard to follow because of that. The gist of the +@c > document could be summarized in 50 pages. +@c +@c This book is intentionally addressed to people who don't know how to +@c program. That is its purpose. We recommend people start learning to +@c program using this book. +@c +@c If you DO know how to program in some other language, you can probably +@c learn Emacs Lisp starting with the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual. +@c +@c Richard Stallman , +@c https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2018-05/msg00374.html + @shortcontents @contents -- 2.39.5