While I started learning Emacs, I made a point my self, not to learn elisp in the beginning. It was so, because I wanted to be productive with emacs using interfaces rather than getting my hands dirty at the code. While, I don't mind getting my hands dirty, my immediate requirement was using emacs as a tool rather than passion or hobby. Being interested in Perl and programming for many years, I knew myself that if I start learning elisp and using it, I would go deeper, without even knowing or using the useful knowledge, which has been generated over the years. I am good at Emacs now.

Why I wrote this, because, I like to do a similar exercise with Perl. i.e... I like to know all the existing available tools and using them efficiently rather than thinking 'within' Perl. Making myself familiar with available things rather than think deep down about some smaller problem and getting crack at that. I guess Perl programmers in general, would find themselves at different spectrum of this thinking. My view is to think on a higher level from business perspective.

I would appreciate feedback, especially for the tools that can help me to achieve these goals

Thanks