When you copy that dot file...
Configuring programs is sort of a hassle that people don't enjoy going
through all that much, particularly when it's a new program not
encountered before. Typically, such configuration is done with some
dot file containing initialization commands such as .emacs
or .login.
One common approach that some people use is to pick somebody else who
seems to know what they're doing and copy their init files. Many
people will offer their init files for the copying. However, blindly
copying is generally not an advisable activity.
Why not just copy someone else's?
If you do this, things will no longer work in the default fashion for
your program, and you won't even know what the default fashion was
supposed to be. You'll post articles in cs.system
complaining that things aren't working properly when it's just that
the way they work was changed by your config file. Quite generally,
it's likely that this will prevent you from ever really figuring out
what's going on.
So what do I do?
What I advise is perusing the config files of many different people
who seem to know what they're doing, to get a feel for how things
work. Obviously this is never a substitute for RTFMing. Then, copy
the segments of other's init files that appear to do things that look
useful and that you can sort of understand. (Actually, real
hackers never copy other's init files, they build them from
scratch with their bare hands after walking twelve miles to the
computer lab uphill both ways...)
Note that this works both ways; if you derive information from others,
it's only polite to share the wealth by making your config files
readable by other people so they can see how you did stuff and learn
from your cleverness.
Marc V 8-93