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

Batteries included with Emacs (2020)

karthinks.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 228 posts

Re: Batteries included with Emacs (2020)

#151

Post by lakkal »

mabub24 wrote: post #61
lawn wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it amazing how common it is for programmers to not be touch typists (I mean typing without looking at the keys). Like, isn't that something you pick up by the sheer amount of keyboard time?

Most people get by with pseudo-touch typing. They have most of the speed down, and look down at the keyboard occasionally, but they do not have the accuracy that is displayed in true touch-typing.

That describes me. I described it once as 'highly advanced hunt-and-peck'. I did learn to tough-type in school, but I didn't touch a computer until the following year and simply forgot it all. That was 40+ years ago. I get by well enough.

Re: Batteries included with Emacs (2020)

#152

Post by cbm-vic-20 »

worik wrote: post #73

For me the killer aspect of Emacs (it applies even more to vi) is being able to use it in a terminal so being able to use it over a network connection. I know X can export over a network connection, but text mode Emacs is much simpler and does not require X.

Emacs is older than X11.

Re: Batteries included with Emacs (2020)

#153

Post by derekjdanserl »

sirsuki wrote: post #138
ripe wrote: post #45

For people who ask, "why use text-only editors like vim or Emacs, when I can use a full GUI IDE?": One of the reasons I haven't seen mentioned much is: I'm a touch typist, and I hate having to switch between mouse and keyboard! I have to take my attention off the screen. Slows me down. Disturbs my concentration. With Emacs, I can work for hours without ever having to hunt for the mouse, or without even having a mouse…

I found I am unique, I never learned to touch type but at the same time reaching for a mouse really slows me down. I realized years into using Vim that the reason I love it so much is that I can do all my editing from the keyboard and because it is a deterministic state machine (modal) I can have a mental copy of the editor running in my head while I'm not looking at the screen. This is important to me because I look…

Honestly stunned. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Batteries included with Emacs (2020)

#155

Post by zdragnar »

xhevahir wrote: post #101
convolvatron wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

unfortunately I can only really work for long stretches on a kinesis split keyboard - with the modifiers all the on the thumb. if they would finally make a bluetooth one maybe that wouldn't be so bad.

I just got an email about a 20% off sale they're having, and I was tempted. Still expensive, though, seeing as how there's so many new ergonomic designs available from smaller companies.

I had a split keyboard and pretty quickly moved on.

The reason should have been rather intuitive, had I considered it. Splitting the keyboard allows a more natural position, but it still needs to be relatively static. Unfortunately, at half the weight, each side had less resistance to moving, especially with the inner stands kicked up at an angle. That meant more frequent fiddling to readjust the positioning, and lots of time wasted trying to decide if it was in the wrong spot, or if I hadnt yet adjusted properly.

Re: Batteries included with Emacs (2020)

#156

Post by themadturk »

Mikeb85 wrote: post #75
lawn wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it amazing how common it is for programmers to not be touch typists (I mean typing without looking at the keys). Like, isn't that something you pick up by the sheer amount of keyboard time?

I'm not that old (30's) but we were forced into learning how to touch-type throughout grade-school. Pretty much any white-collar work requires it. Getting through university basically requires it (even humanities courses; good luck writing long essays without it). It's shocking that anyone who went through school in a developed country can't touch-type.

I suppose it depends on your definition of touch typing. Back in the early 70s, before many people had heard of personal computers, I was planning a career in journalism. I had to learn my way around a keyboard, so I took a quarter of high school typing. It didn’t teach me to “touch type” in the sense of achieving 100 word per minute or whatever, but it was the solid foundation I needed for typing in college, in my (too brief) journalism career, in office work and systems admin work. I’m reasonably fast, and I don’t always look at the keyboard, and no one has ever complained about it.

Re: Batteries included with Emacs (2020)

#159

Post by spicybright »

arkaic wrote: post #121
ripe wrote: post #45

For people who ask, "why use text-only editors like vim or Emacs, when I can use a full GUI IDE?": One of the reasons I haven't seen mentioned much is: I'm a touch typist, and I hate having to switch between mouse and keyboard! I have to take my attention off the screen. Slows me down. Disturbs my concentration. With Emacs, I can work for hours without ever having to hunt for the mouse, or without even having a mouse…

On your last point, in terms of absolute speed, pointing your mouse to the paragraph and dragging to highlight is usually faster than the fussiness of multiple key presses and/or chord combos needed from a full keyboard setup. That is, unless you've macro'd a custom single key shortcut for just that particular action

I have no problem going keyboard to mouse, but mostly because I use a macbook with touchpad exclusively. Reaching my thumb down right below the space bar to use the mouse is really not a big deal.

Re: Batteries included with Emacs (2020)

#160

Post by ordu »

BeetleB wrote: post #90
submeta wrote: post #39

After spending endless hours in learning the ins and outs of Emacs and starting to learn Elisp, I come to realize that Emacs‘ tinkering-to-doing ratio is too high. I need tools that get out of my way. Emacs can get a hobby or an obsession. If you have nothing else to do, fine, spend your time sharpening the saw instead of cutting wood. I turned to VS Code + PyCharm for coding. And use Emacs for editing text only. And…

> I come to realize that Emacs‘ tinkering-to-doing ratio is too high. You are in full control of how much tinkering you do, though. Strange to blame a tool for this.

Much more strange when a tool blames its users for their unsatisfying experiences. It is tool is made for user, not the other way.
Post reply on HN