I’d get rid of the text editor and swap in neovim or hx code as a mode, I’d chuck emacs lisp and use Common Lisp instead, I’d definitely keep org mode and ditch old stuff like mail and news reader as core and let them be add ons written in CL . Rewrite it all in rust. That’s probably enough for today.
Ask HN: If you were rewriting Emacs from scratch, what would you do differently?
111–120 of 340 posts
Re: Ask HN: If you were rewriting Emacs from scratch, what would you do differently?
#112Disclaimer: my experience with Emacs is limited. I've only used it because it's the path of least resistence to learn Lisp.
So for me it would be: everything that makes Lisp programming easier, like:
- Use a Lisp implementation that's not tied to the editor.
- Slime/Sly + Quicklisp functionality out of the box.
- Integrated syntax awareness, preferably "syntax directed" for programming.
There is more, but it'll be obvious (like updated defaults and looks) unless you want to make an outright clone, or at least a direct replacement option, I wonder if that's what you mean: "rewriting Emacs" seems to suggest it is.
It's difficult. These big old projects like Emacs, and Lisp itself, have both succeeded and failed. There are features that made them last decades and others that made them stop attracting new users. How to capture the appealing parts without reproducing the quirks?
Re: Ask HN: If you were rewriting Emacs from scratch, what would you do differently?
#113Starting with some kind of namespacing solution for emacs lisp would be nice.
Re: Ask HN: If you were rewriting Emacs from scratch, what would you do differently?
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most of the text on the web for example is in a proportional-pitch typeface. Does your Emacs usually use a proportional-pitch typeface? If so and you're on Linux, I'll install the font you are using. I've tried using proportional typefaces in Emacs (on Mac), but there was something off, so I went back to monospaced. I could try again now that I have a Linux machine. The text in my Emacs looks almost exactly like the…
Pardon me if you're ahead of me on this, but it sounds like you might be using a proportional typeface as the default or fixed-pitch face. You should get nice-looking proportional type if you set the variable-pitch face to your desired typeface and enter variable-pitch-mode in the buffer. E.g., (custom-set-faces '(variable-pitch ((t :family "Verdana" :height 180)))) And then in the buffer you wish to view with propor…
Thanks for the info, but the result of that is not any better than the result of what I had already done. (I wrote a command that put an overlay on the buffer to change the typeface.)
It's not as good text on the web IMHO. Typography is very complicated, and I think the people who did the typographical details of Chrome and Firefox were very skilled, is my guess.
Re: Ask HN: If you were rewriting Emacs from scratch, what would you do differently?
#115The core should be in rust, verfied in lean, and the runtime should be in guile. Literate programming in org-mode should be a hard requirement. Package management should require patch algebra. Macros should be submitted to a leaderboard in a blockchain and yield flair in EUDC. M-x measure-beard-length should require 10000 hours of logged usage and unlock the major mode infinity-categorization. Tongue-no-longer-in-che…
>> see jujutsu nowadays
I'm looking at pijul..
Re: Ask HN: If you were rewriting Emacs from scratch, what would you do differently?
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
For instant startup I recommend daemon mode and emacsclient. Start emacs via emacs --daemon, open windows (in the terminal or otherwise) via `emacsclient` / `emacsclient -nc` (I use aliases for these).
I wrap my slow .emacs loads inside #'run-with-idle-timer so they run when I'm not looking, and not likely to notice.
what is this point of this, when would you not be using emacs?
Re: Ask HN: If you were rewriting Emacs from scratch, what would you do differently?
#117- throw away c language mode and and rewrite it from scratch
- make dired more usable like a normal file manager. opening a file with the associated program that would persist after emacs closes should be its primary feature. ideally i want something like a mix of ranger/lf with dired
- make it have fully-featured terminal, not dumb terminal. make it easy to open lots of terminal windows. add a way to change terminal directory with fido or dired
- make working with ssh not so horribly laggy
Re: Ask HN: If you were rewriting Emacs from scratch, what would you do differently?
#118First of all, I would make sure that it would not be swapping constantly when running on eight megabytes !
LOL - Haven't seen that one in ages...
Re: Ask HN: If you were rewriting Emacs from scratch, what would you do differently?
#119Use Common Lisp instead of making its own mac-lisp like dialect.
Re: Ask HN: If you were rewriting Emacs from scratch, what would you do differently?
#120I'd make cursors be positioned within the document instead of on the screen. Currently, Emacs does not support off-screen cursors. If you attempt to scroll a cursor off screen, it will move within the document to stay on screen. This behavior is contrary to all modern text editors, and there is no good workaround. I once made a serious effort to start using Emacs, but ultimately stopped because of the annoying cursor…
This still annoys me slightly after nearly 20 years of using Emacs. In response to keypresses, it doesn't bother me too much, as I'm used to the Windows-style behaviour of PgUp/PgDn/etc. moving the caret, much as the Mac behaviour of not doing that is sometimes useful. But for mouse wheel scrolling, which I do a lot - precisely because on Windows this typically does not move the caret! - having point follow along has…
Conversely, I curse heavily at Mac programs where I can page down or scroll for a while, only to have an arrow press jump way the heck back in the document.