How not to learn Emacs!

Ever started learning Emacs and gave up?

How many times did you try?

Why?

Let me give you some reasons why Emacs learning appears to more difficult than it actually is. Basing your reasoning on one or more of the following, you're only prolonging the agony, stubborn and being ornery about it. In hindsight, it is no more and no less difficult than learning any tool.

It all boils down to, how much are you willing to unlearn and then relearn something basic? The following are all variations of the same theme over and over again.

1. Emacs doesn't behave like vi or this/that editor. Of course it doesn't. Emacs behaves differently than most others editors in vogue currently. Every aspect of Emacs is pretty much guaranteed to be different from what you've generally used to with respect to your other editor. Obviously, not a modal editor; the GUI is skimpy when compared to the other editors; builtin interpreter; buffers and modes; weird help system; frames and windows et al.
   
2. Emacs does not follow the Windows CUA UI standard of editing text. Yes, there is cua mode that provides these features but the default is certainly not one that Windows users are used to. Citing this as a reason has always been a bit puzzling for me. If vi users are way more legion than Emacs and they are willing to train themselves of h,j,k,l keys, there is some disconnect here. Why is Emacs more difficult than that? Yes, it can be incredibly frustrating with the copy paste actions that working on the Windows platform brings but it can be overcome. Trust me on that. I gave up initially because of the very reason. Too lazy to train my hunt-n-peck typing fingers to learn anew. But one day, once I made up my mind to figure out all things Emacs, I did not worry about this at all. Just took it for granted that C-y, M-y are the way to go.
   
3. Emacs key-chording is weird. Again, a disconnect, people are willing to learn hotkeys, Windows shortcuts and the ilk but key chords? Emacs takes hotkeys to the extreme. :-)
4. Emacs terminology is alien. A common complaint but if you're going to learn a new editor you might as well get used what IT is asking you to learn instead of trying to make it fit your world view. Once you learn the emacs terminology, then everything else will start falling into place. And soon you will be modifying Emacs to fit your world view.
   
5. The Emacs help system is complex and bewildering to new comers. It only appears so; given time and patience in learning the tutorial and getting stuck, the help system will be a natural extension to working in any editing context. Combined with the info reader, it is simple, effective and gets what you ask for. Compared to other help systems from Borland, Microsoft, it is highly contextual given the way Emacs is crafted.
   
6. Emacs use LISP. So? Not a frequent comment but I did hear it once when I remarked about it using Emacs-lisp builtin. And you can get by or defer learning or coming into contact with it as much as possible. The Emacs customize system tries to hide as much as possible for the lay user.
   

I should have started learning Emacs around 1996 thereabouts but ended up fulling committing to learning it only in 1999. Talk about inertia and excuses! All the above and variations is what I used. I learnt vi, nano, textpad, notepad+ or whatever, pfe or something and other editors. Finally got religion and converted to Emacs. And then when I tried to convert others, I ran into the same issues that I had.

I've noticed that the resistance is incredibly high for Windows users. The CUA stuff and the lack of shiny icons and the key chording makes it incredibly tough for them. But that is a hill that they have to climb themselves and encouragement is only that; encouragement.

If you have any of the hang ups as mentioned above, then it certainly is not the way that will get you proficient in Emacs. It only serves to limit your learning and enjoying the learning process.