> From: Steinar Bang
> Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 11:57 AM
> To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu....
> Subject: Re: Emacs: Problems of the Scratch Buffer
>
> >>>>> Xah Lee <xahlee@gmai...>:
>
> >  3.The “*scratch*” “buffer” is a INTRUSIVE IDIOSYNCRASY. New users are
> > not familiar what it is. It is the first thing presented to users,
>
> No it's not.
>
> The first thing presented to users is the banner buffer.

Not consistently, and it would be more useful if it just sat there indefinitely.  It times out, right?  Also, if you touch any key that it isn't expecting, it disappears, doesn't it?

At the moment, "emacs -Q" (23.1 on Windows) is dropping me into *scratch* ... (*shrug*) but I know I sometimes see that banner....  I thought I understood this, but anyway it's making the original argument rather well, I think.  

Anyway, I've been an Emacs Lisp hacker for >20 years, and I very rarely use *scratch*; when I do, it has never been first thing I wanted to do....  (I also rather dislike the 'reuse' characteristics that keep placing newer output from repeated Lisp expressions at the end....)

Cheers,
Mark