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Emacs 26.2 Released

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Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#31

Post by rayiner »

nextos wrote: post #22
laughingman2 wrote: post #6

As someone who recently saw the light, and converted to Emacs (spacemacs), I am absolutely delighted that its going strong. Emacs is the most delightful software I have ever used. I could evolve a flexible todo management productivity workflow, start writing a journal and start writing new posts in a distraction free environment all using Org Mode in just two days. A complete win for someone who went back to paper (r…

Emacs is really nice because it's essentially a text-mode Lisp machine with lots of small packages that integrate really well with each other. This contrasts with ncurses based CLI tools, which are little silos. And of course, most GUI applications. In particular, I'm really fond of Org, Magit, Notmuch and PDF-Tools. I feel they are really nice additions to classic Emacs. Some old packages are really nice too. E.g. A…

Holy crap. I had no idea pdftools was a thing. And interleve mode. Brilliant.

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#32

Post by alrehn »

Skunkleton wrote: post #28
IanS5 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe try easing into it with evil?

I'm not saying this is bad advice, but as a vim expert I have a hard time with emulations messing up my flow. IMO if you want to use emacs it is worth taking the hit and switching to a whole new set of keybindings.

Using vim keybindings with emacs has been way better then any other vim keybindings thing I've tried for other programs. And if there's anything missing you can customize it.

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#33

Post by manish_gill »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #3

I'm really happy to see Emacs move faster, and especially the integration of package management since version 25. The old beast is still kicking! For what it's worth, I've actually been using on macOS the Mituharu branch [1], available in MacPorts as "emacs-mac-app". This version adds the [s]essential[/s] smooth-scrolling feature, and just in general seems to be slightly better integrated into macOS (except that it d…

Emacs is the one environment that I've been a fan of from afar. I recognize the brilliance and power of it, but a few things have always kept me away from using it on the Mac. And I've put in serious attempts, including going emacs-only, then a custom evil mode, then spacemacs -

- The server mode compatibility with the way Mac applications are set up. I'd ideally want an emacs server running in the background, and a client app open/close seamlessly whenever I'd like. What actually ends up happening is that I close the client windows but the app never "quits". So it's a zombie icon always hanging around my cmd+tab list.

- "Windows" (or Frames?) have generally not worked seamlessly for me. I've to always put in hacks in my config to ensure the emacs windows work like other apps do for mac. They're either too small and then size up when config is applied (which has some latency so it's noticeable when it happens), or they don't work at all.

- Font rendering. There is some minute rendering difference in the way the same fonts that renders on Vim/iTerm/Macvim/Sublime/VSCode/IntelliJ, but it's the worse by far on my emacs. :(

- All of these complaints are for the GUI mode tbh, which I prefer to use since I like to keep my terminal separate from my editor. Terminal-only emacs is something I tried a few years ago and I remember getting annoyed by keybinding issues etc.

Maybe all of the above are old issues that are no longer present, or maybe I was doing things the wrong way. It just never felt like it was a seamlessly integrated application on the Mac. I hope that has changed or will change. :)

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#34

Post by tcoff91 »

coliveira wrote: post #16
andrenth wrote: post #10

What’s a good resource for learning emacs for someone who’s been using vim for more than 20 years?

My guess is that someone that has used vim for more than 20 years will never feel truly comfortable with emacs. I say this having started with emacs for a few years, and since switched to vim, now for almost 20 years.

What about evil mode? Also spacemacs has evil bindings for all of its emacs packages.

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#35

Post by mrspeaker »

jes wrote: post #8

I have been using GNU Emacs since the late 1980s. It has been my life's editor, so to speak. At 59 1/2, it seems unlikely that I will ever switch to another editor. It's served me well. I am grateful to the hackers that created it.

I only just understood Emacs about a year ago, despite being a nerd for at least 30 years. I like to think I don't have too many regrets in life - but I'm kicking myself for not realizing what Emacs was way back then - or at any of the times I've tried it out in the past (writing it off as "a text editor")!

Never too late though, and on the plus side I've now got decades of hidden Emacs goodies still to discover!

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#37

Post by Zyst »

Skunkleton wrote: post #28
IanS5 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe try easing into it with evil?

I'm not saying this is bad advice, but as a vim expert I have a hard time with emulations messing up my flow. IMO if you want to use emacs it is worth taking the hit and switching to a whole new set of keybindings.

Would you mind elaborating more about which particular emulations mess up your flow?

I use Emacs very casually, mainly just for writing in org mode with Evil, and have toyed with the idea of switching to it completely. But, if you could talk about the figurative holes you fell into as a vim expert that could help inform my decision down the road.

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#38

Post by snazz »

andrenth wrote: post #10

What’s a good resource for learning emacs for someone who’s been using vim for more than 20 years?

A bit of advice: Emacs can do so many things (there’s a web browser included out of the box), but that doesn’t mean you should use it for everything. Despite the fact that “applications” within Emacs are usually better integrated than those outside of it, they are oftentimes fairly buggy. Emacs has a horrible case of featureitis, so I try to limit my usage of the bundled features that aren’t well-maintained, of which there are many.

As many others have suggested, take a look at Evil, the best Vim emulation for any platform. Just ease your way into it by replacing Vim, then some other CLI programs, then figure out when to stop when the Emacs version is no better than what you were using before.

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#39

Post by honkycat »

Skunkleton wrote: post #28
IanS5 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe try easing into it with evil?

I'm not saying this is bad advice, but as a vim expert I have a hard time with emulations messing up my flow. IMO if you want to use emacs it is worth taking the hit and switching to a whole new set of keybindings.

I degree greatly.

Long time vim user, switched to evil emacs. Works great, have zero issues with it.

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#40

Post by josteink »

bdarnell wrote: post #27

Here's the NEWS file for the curious: http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/tree/etc/NEWS?h=e...

Thanks. Weird it not being linked directly in the post.

“ New variable 'xft-ignore-color-fonts'.

Default t means don't try to load color fonts when using Xft, as they often cause crashes. Set it to nil if you really need those fonts.”

I see they finally caved in (although in a quite pedantly trying not to way) and allowed use of color-fonts. Whee!

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