Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!pyrdc!gmu90x!dstalder@gmuvax2.gmu.edu
From: dstalder@gmuvax2.gmu.edu (Darren Stalder)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: EMACS better than Vi?
Message-ID: <1084@gmu90x.UUCP>
Date: 18 May 88 07:56:29 GMT
References: <1839@mhres.mh.nl> <3810@diku.dk>
Sender: dstalder@gmu90x.UUCP
Reply-To: dstalder@gmuvax2.gmu.edu (Darren Stalder)
Organization: George Mason University
Lines: 58
In-reply-to: carllp@diku.dk (Carl-Lykke Pedersen)

In article <3810@diku.dk>, carllp@diku (Carl-Lykke Pedersen) writes:
>The problem for novice users is that they still have all the other 
>commands. One false move and you are *dead*!
>Have you ever tried typing 'C-x n' by accident? Or 'C-w', or 'C-x l' or ...
>If you know wery little about emacs it can be very hard to get out of this.
>
>And how do you get out? 'C-c' gives access to even more bizare commands,
>'C-z' doesn't always work, 'C-\' doesn't work, 'ESC ESC' set you in the
>most bizare part of emacs!
>
>Well, get help!
>The help system is such a gigantic system. You wouldn't know were to begin.
>If you make an apropos, you either get 20 pages or none!
>
>I think it would be a good thing to make a special novice-mode in emacs.
>The only commands should be the ones you mentioned, a (better) tutorial,
>a way to get into the real emacs and a usefull user-interface with the 
>undefined keys.
>
But there is a novice mode in emacs.
All functions have a property called disabled.  If this property has a
value of T then you will be asked if you would like to execute this
command.  Emacs goes on to explain what the command does and then
gives you three options.  You can try it just once, you can enable it
(the enabling command is automatically put in you .emacs file), or you
can abort the command.

Commands like eval-expression (ESC-ESC) should be disabled.  If you
just started up emacs and typed it, then someone configured your
system wrong.  Look in your .emacs file for a line that says
(put 'eval-expression 'disabled nil)  This is what enables you to use
eval-expression with no prompting.  If you would like to disable some
of the commands in Emacs, here is what you do:
first if you don't know the function name type C-h c and the keystroke
sequence.  This will tell you what command runs with that key binding.

Then you must put into your .emacs file a line that looks like:
(put '-function-name- 'disabled t)  This will cause novice to be
loaded whenever -function-name- is called.  The two ' are important to
keep the e-lisp interpreter from thinking they are functions.
Example:  (if eval-expression is enabled by default on your system)
(put 'eval-expression 'disabled t)
I hope this helps.  
Hmm..just checking on something..If you type ESC-x disable-command and
the command name, Emacs will alter your .emacs file for you.  You can
do it either way.
>
>CLp
>.
--
                  Torin/Darren Stalder/Wolf
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