Live data from Hacker News

Why GNU Emacs?

elephly.net

311–317 of 317 posts

Re: Why GNU Emacs?

#311
post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The xwidget_mvp branch has been merged into the emacs master branch about a month ago. It allows you to embed GTK widgets INSIDE an emacs buffer, effectively allowing one to create actual GUIs inside of emacs. This also allows you to embed a full webkit-based browser (with javascript support!) right into emacs, and use it like a regular browser. Just clone the emacs repo, build it with gtk3 and xwidget support, and r…

There's only one question that remains to be answered. Why?

Why not? :)

Re: Why GNU Emacs?

#312
post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're waiting for a day in the past: See EXWM, links in a sibling comment. With it, you can use emacs as your window manager already.

That would be awesome! Is it actually stable and/or usable?

I tried it very early and it was unstable, but I'm following its development, and it seems that it'll be stable shortly. I'm using ratpoison nowadays, though I'll switch to it when it's stable enough and emacs gets multithreading.

Re: Why GNU Emacs?

#313
post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The xwidget_mvp branch has been merged into the emacs master branch about a month ago. It allows you to embed GTK widgets INSIDE an emacs buffer, effectively allowing one to create actual GUIs inside of emacs. This also allows you to embed a full webkit-based browser (with javascript support!) right into emacs, and use it like a regular browser. Just clone the emacs repo, build it with gtk3 and xwidget support, and r…

There's only one question that remains to be answered. Why?

Browsing through an environment that's integrated nicely, deeply configurable, and completely programmable. What else would you want as a programmer and an pc user?

Re: Why GNU Emacs?

#314
post #76

I find it interesting that we as programmers love to base a lot of our technical decisions on hard data, but somehow the choice of editors seems immune to this. Has anyone ever done an analysis of the actual objective benefits of these editors? I got suckered into the 'religion' of vi and have spent countless hours learning it to a fairly high level of proficiency over the years. I don't think I've ever recovered all…

  > Most of my time is spent outside of the editor
Emacs has a leg up, in this respect.

Re: Why GNU Emacs?

#315
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think pklausler means that, out of the box, emacs is decent but, over time, you slowly mold it into something that is more truly yours. That's been my nearly twenty year experience with emacs.

I am glad that you have enjoyed your use of emacs, but no, I was being literal. A text editor is not a complicated piece of software to write from scratch.

I guess 7100 lines of C might sound simple to some, but that sounds pretty complicated to me! :)

Re: Why GNU Emacs?

#316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the entire argument about not moving one's hands is moot then, since in emacs you get navigation via control-key for free, and in vi you need to remap the most important key to something near home row. Got it. Thanks.

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were actually interested in the answer. I won't get into an emacs/vim war, thank you, I got tired of it circa 1999.

I'm not interested in a war either. I'm only interested in both sides presenting fair arguments. If one side says "but the other side has to move their hands" and leaves out "oh, my side does too, unless I rebind keys", then that's unfair, and I'll say something.

If you think that places me on the other side of the argument (it doesn't), that's on you. It simply puts me in the middle.

Re: Why GNU Emacs?

#317
post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does atom work in a ptty?

Not everybody needs that. Even I as a sysadmin just use TRAMP from within my graphical Emacs to edit remote files and don't open Emacs in an SSH session over a terminal emulator.

> Not everybody needs that.

Didn't suggest they did. But I do.

Post reply on HN