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Emacs: The Editor for the Next Forty Years [video]

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Re: Emacs: The Editor for the Next Forty Years [video]

#121

Post by Skunkleton »

thatguyagain wrote: post #102
omarhaneef wrote: post #32

I've noticed that (almost?) any talk about any editor in the last few years: emacs, vim, sublime, atom etc always brings up how good VS Code is. It's a huge endorsement of VS code.

I think users of VI or emacs has different ways of defining "good" here. Personally, I would never use VS Code, or any other chromium editor.

I keep trying to use VSCode because there are aspects of it that work better than vim. I always end up back with vim. I think that is because an editor that sits on top of a CLI is much more useful than an editor with a CLI on top of it, at least for my work.

Re: Emacs: The Editor for the Next Forty Years [video]

#122

Post by worldsayshi »

ilikehurdles wrote: post #73
worldsayshi wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main reason I quit Emacs was the lack of context and semantically aware code completion and re-factoring tools. Such tools are invaluable productivity boosts for me. I have never gotten that to work in Emacs to a satisfactory degree.

Coincidentally, I quit java for almost the same reason.

Really? What languages have better IDE support than Java? I guess C#?

Re: Emacs: The Editor for the Next Forty Years [video]

#123

Post by dmortin »

bobongo wrote: post #59
jwr wrote: post #5

There are lines in my Emacs config files that are older than some of the programmers I work with, so I can relate. Contrary to what some people think, Emacs does not require constant tweaking and wasting time on configuration. I revisit my setup every couple of years or so, and I always find it is time well spent, as my productivity goes up as a result. I do not know of a better environment for multi-language program…

> Emacs does not require constant tweaking and wasting time on configuration. Unless you are using org-mode, in which case updating org-mode may cause issues that require reading up on the breaking changes that were introduced between org-mode versions. (This is meant as a heads up for newcomers using org-mode, since it's pretty popular at this point.)

Don't upgrade org mode if you don't have to. I only update org when I move to a new major emacs version and it comes with a new org bundled.

Re: Emacs: The Editor for the Next Forty Years [video]

#124

Post by jhoechtl »

slightwinder wrote: post #70
nandkeypull wrote: post #10

Emacs has really undergone a renaissance in the past decade - magit, LSP, ivy, spacemacs, doom emacs - there have been so many novel new packages and frameworks written by elisp hackers. For such an old editor, the development scene feels incredibly alive.

There may be much going on with emacs, but so far it fails to move ahead. The project is just improving the old strenghts, but not fixing the old fails. And as time moves, they start to hurt more and more and more until they break.

The most core inards of Emacs are subject to bitrot. It doesn't play well with any Windowing system.

And as an editor it is quite slow/sluggish.

Re: Emacs: The Editor for the Next Forty Years [video]

#125

Post by kashyapc »

SirensOfTitan wrote: post #7
k33n wrote: post #2

Oh Emacs. A graybeard I respect got me to try it about 5 years ago. I used to walk by his machine and think "wow, in a movie about a hacker, this is what their computer screen would look like". I also thought Magit was pretty damn cool because it made interacting with Git extremely intuitive (once you're comfortable with Emacs). In the years since first picking up Emacs, I have probably spent 100 hours or more config…

So if you’re not making the world a better place you’re wasting your time? Play is supremely important in almost any activity. Not only is there incredible work insight to be found in activity without goals, but play is fun and good for you.

On the importance of "play"—

From one of the books I'm currently reading (Blueprint, The evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, by Nicholas Christakis — itself a great read), I learnt of an interesting book reference: Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture (1938).

The abstract sounds promising:

"[...] With cross-cultural examples from the humanities, business, and politics, Huizinga examines play in all its diverse guises—as it relates to language, law, war, knowledge, poetry, myth, philosophy, art, and much more. As he writes, “Civilization is, in its earliest phases, played. It does not come from play like a baby detaching itself from the womb: it arises in and as play, and never leaves it.” [...] Starting with Plato, Huizinga traces the contribution of “man the player” through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and early modern world. [...]"

[*] https://www.amazon.com/Homo-Ludens-Study-Play-Element-Cultur...

Re: Emacs: The Editor for the Next Forty Years [video]

#126

Post by emgee_1 »

iudqnolq wrote: post #52
TeMPOraL wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely. I approached the set up mu4e + offlineimap over multiple accounts (including a GMail one) many times, and I've never been fully satisfied with it. I'd really want to get it to work flawlessly, so I'd love to be able to learn from your experience.

What doesn't not fully satisfied mean for you? I might just have lower standards...

I think you should offlineimap; Use mbsync ( iSync )

Re: Emacs: The Editor for the Next Forty Years [video]

#127

Post by iudqnolq »

emgee_1 wrote: post #126
iudqnolq wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What doesn't not fully satisfied mean for you? I might just have lower standards...

I think you should offlineimap; Use mbsync ( iSync )

Offlineimap and mbsync are two separate tools that do the same thing. I've had a good experience with offlineimap. In both cases, however, the hard part is not picking the tool but configuring it.

Re: Emacs: The Editor for the Next Forty Years [video]

#128

Post by maemilius »

justaj wrote: post #87

A question for Emacs user: Do you use the GUI version or the terminal version? I found the terminal version next to unworkable because I couldn't find any terminal that didn't capture some keystrokes that were meant for Emacs.

I use the terminal version of Emacs. I've used a number of terminals and currently use Kitty[1]. It had some keybindings that conflicted with Emacs, but the config file has a really handy "unset everything" command. So, I only have keybindings for things I actually use.

1: https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/

Re: Emacs: The Editor for the Next Forty Years [video]

#129

Post by swah »

globular-toast wrote: post #100
swah wrote: post #98

I changed Emacs for Sublime and now VScode - my main reason to change IIRC was that my fingers/wrist hurt from using chords so much :(

How does Sublime or VSCode help with that? Emacs has evil mode which enables a vi style interface.

For once, they help because you don't feel like playing with the editor so much... Emacs was a timesink.

Like, where now I use https://insomnia.rest/ to interact with APIs, when I used emacs that could/would be solved with elisp files filled with elisp functions to run those calls interactively...

Re: Emacs: The Editor for the Next Forty Years [video]

#130

Post by michael-ax »

dandelo53 wrote: post #93
klik99 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a certain class of programmers tool that requires constant tweaking, like a road bike used in the city - and typically the users suffer from OCD or stockholm syndrome, because they won't stop evangelizing. I thought emacs was one of THOSE types of tools and the initial experience does nothing to disabuse that. On my 4th or 5th attempt to start using emacs I finally decided to get over the hump even if it took…

Curious, can you identify what anything specific that changed the your thinking that it was THAT type of tool?

i believe lists of its obsessively chiseled, unique, world-class features would only get contrasted with its pardonable shortcomings as an editor.

so, that question is a no go because the thing has a transcendent dimension, it puts you at the heart of the storm, the center of computing where you commune with the gods of our field in perfect calm.

once you slay the dragons. best of luck!

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