Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Emacs 26.2 Released

lists.gnu.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 278 posts

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#181

Post by ryukafalz »

dan-robertson wrote: post #167
young_unixer wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you had RSI issues? Do you use it with the default keybindings? I've tried it a few times but the default keybindings seem unnatural to me. Not that it's Emacs fault, considering the keyboards they used back then.

For a long time I was unaffected, until I started using emacs more. This was resolved by switching to an ergonomic keyboard where I put all the modifier keys on the thumbs which resolved this issue (but made single handed typing of eg C-V or single words a bit annoying)

I've done exactly this with similar results. Modifiers on the thumb cluster made a huge difference for me (and I've set up my emacs keybindings to be comfortable on my keyboard as well).

It's helped (but not completely alleviated) my RSI. Absolutely worth the price for me though given that.

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#182

Post by hwestiii »

emacsvimlover wrote: post #110
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.

Kudos to you. I have tried and failed miserably to learn emacs many times. The switch from vi seems to be really hard but I really like emacs and hope to become a pro user someday.

Emacs has multiple vi emulation modes. I've been using emacs for going on 20 years, using the VIPER package, and I've never bothered to learn the emacs native key binding. Best of both worlds.

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#183

Post by _emacsomancer_ »

nsilvestri wrote: post #134
cmehdy wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any suggestions to pick it up without wanting to give up due to convoluted shortcuts?

If you're already familiar with vim, I've heard good things about Spacemacs: http://spacemacs.org/

Or just install Evil in plain Emacs.

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#184

Post by _emacsomancer_ »

spear wrote: post #173
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.

Thirty years of Emacs here as well(1). I still use Gnus to read e-mail and Usenet, and my desktop calculator is a small frame that's running Calc. (1) Well, technically, that includes several years of XEmacs in the middle, when GNU Emacs didn't look as good under X11.

You can still use the Lucid/Athena toolkit in GNU Emacs if you ever get nostalgic for the look of XEmacs.

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#185

Post by _emacsomancer_ »

brlewis wrote: post #51
agumonkey wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what kind of programs get to follow you for so many decades.

Just bash, the command-line tools one uses from bash, LaTeX, and emacs/vim. I think git will stick around for decades even though its predecessors didn't.

My machines pretty much run Emacs, LaTeX, and Firefox, and everything else is largely window-dressing[0]. (I end up doing most of my command-line stuff from eshell inside of Emacs these days.)

[0] Well, a WM/DE of course, either Stumpwm or Plasma. And pdfpc[1] is really pretty fantastic for showing "Beamer" (pdf) slides. And syncthing for sync'ing between machines.

[1] https://pdfpc.github.io/

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#186

Post by chongli »

Pete_D wrote: post #123
coliveira wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vi(m) is not just a set of key bindings. It is also a philosophy of text editing that is much more integrated with the command line. You cannot replicate it entirely in other editors.

I don't know what the state of vi(m) emulation was the last time you used emacs, but evil-mode is very comprehensive. About the only thing I missed when I made the switch was tabs; everything else either just worked as in vim or had a near-identical equivalent. I'm curious what you expect would be missing.

I've been using vim for many years now, with stints of using emacs here and there. I cannot stand evil-mode. If I'm using emacs it has to be with default key bindings. Why? Because evil-mode violates my expectations as to how vim operates.

It may be fine for a very casual vim user who wants to switch to emacs but it's too confusing for a vim power user. There are subtle differences that disrupt the flow of my muscle memory. One such example is the }{ forward and reverse paragraph motion. In vim, this is perfectly predictable and delineated by empty lines. In evil-mode, however, it's hooked into the major mode, so it's always changing behaviour as you switch between different file types.

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#187

Post by Skunkleton »

Zyst wrote: post #37
Skunkleton wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It has been a while since I honestly tried evil-mode, but there were a few categories of issues I remember:

1. Search/replace behavior - Not that it is better or worse, just that it is different. 2. Misc. ex commands. I don't remember specifics. 3. Plugin specific commands. Not really fair to bring up, but still part of my muscle memory.

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#188

Post by agumonkey »

TypingStuff wrote: post #108
mrspeaker wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

+1. I recall thinking it was a text editor with inferior key bindings to vim, and with a bunch of unnecessary weirdness. I'm glad I took the time to investigate this discoverable interactive programmatic keyboard-oriented UI platform, that also happens to have a great editor (evil). A uniquely empowering tool for programmers.

have a go at the Pharo MOOC, pharo is a smalltalk descendant, it's an emacs like experience but even more regular

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#189

Post by agumonkey »

young_unixer wrote: post #68
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.

Have you had RSI issues? Do you use it with the default keybindings? I've tried it a few times but the default keybindings seem unnatural to me. Not that it's Emacs fault, considering the keyboards they used back then.

here's a joke:

I use emacs all the time with all the half bad wrist positions and all and have no RSI. Not even CAPS LOCK -> CTRL trick.

For a MOOC I had to suff.. use Eclipse IDE. I don't like it but I didn't mind its keybindings. The morning after I had very nasty pain in my left hand. So I quickly got back into emacs to heal that rapid onset RSI.

Re: Emacs 26.2 Released

#190

Post by _emacsomancer_ »

rayiner wrote: post #31
nextos wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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: interleave mode, check out org-noter for another take on the same theme.

And, yes, pdf-tools is awesome.

Post reply on HN