mailing-list for TeXmacs Users

[Andreas Seidl <address@hidden>]

On Wed, 17 Dec 2003, Javier [iso-8859-15] Arántegui Jiménez wrote:

> In my opinion, one of the weakest points of TeXmacs is that the help
> files are sometimes difficult to understand (at least for me). A few
> days ago, I gave up 

I agree that the documentation that comes with TeXmacs is too much
information and the wrong information for new users. Missing are tutorials
to get started quickly, the manual can be read later.

But -- it should not be the developer's task to write tutorials, this is 
something the users can do!

Try google with "photoshop button tutorial" and "texmacs equation
tutorial" to see the difference. Furhtermore, it should be much easier for
a new user, who is working into the subject for the first time, to know
what to explain and how to explain. It needs not to be a whole tutorial,
contributing a paragraph to the FAQ would be nice as well :)

What about a TeXmacs webring of users, who display testimonials like "my
life has changed to the better since I learned about TeXmacs, you should
try it", show what they have done with TeXmacs and talk about the problems 
they encountered? Group meetings of anonymous TeXmacsians?

A bit more bazaar, a bit less cathedral, anybody?

Anyway, as I had already similar problems with explaining, I recently
started to write a webpage with title "TeXmacs in 60 minutes", where I
explain some features and issues (mostly windows) you encounter, and give
a hands-on tutorial, where I walk the reader through creating a small
paper. After investing a little time, an educated decission can be made by
the reader whether he wants to start the endeavor of using texmacs or not,
and he will know what points there are for TeXmacs.

Andreas.
--
http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/~seidl