Both emacs and web servers are major programs, and analyzing them 'from the source' for debugging purposes is a different thing than analyzing how a single minor module works in it's normal environment. Debugging can have you rooting around in the basement fairly quickly, which is more than likely to overwhelm a novice.
If you say, "it's too hard", it will be. (You don't have to be productive on day one. But some day, you should at least take a look.)
Plenty of people have trouble getting slime working, let alone hacking around on the guts of emacs without an experienced hand around to guide you.
If they read the source code, the magic would become understandable. The problem that people have with things like SLIME or monads or pointers or classes is that they build a mental model that's a lot more complex than the real thing. Take a look at the real thing, and your mental model becomes simpler and more in line with reality.
If you say, "it's too hard", it will be. (You don't have to be productive on day one. But some day, you should at least take a look.)
Plenty of people have trouble getting slime working, let alone hacking around on the guts of emacs without an experienced hand around to guide you.
If they read the source code, the magic would become understandable. The problem that people have with things like SLIME or monads or pointers or classes is that they build a mental model that's a lot more complex than the real thing. Take a look at the real thing, and your mental model becomes simpler and more in line with reality.