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Ask HN: Any fun ways to learn Emacs?

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Ask HN: Any fun ways to learn Emacs?

#1

Post by yawpitch »

I’ve been using vim for years, but after a traumatic brain injury my muscle memory for typing got a bit scrambled at the same time my need for something that was always installed everywhere dwindled. I’d kind of like to finally see what the deal is with emacs, but as holding down multiple keys simultaneously is now more than a bit hard (and so is memorizing all the chords) I’m looking for a game or typing tutor or similar sort of experience that can help me pick up emacs gradually and help me build a new muscle memory without having to actually work on anything important.

Over the years I’ve seen a bunch of games aimed at getting used to vim-style navigation, but not come across anything emacs-centric.

Alternatively I suppose I could just got evil, but as I’ve not used emacs practically I’m a bit confused how you don’t end up with a hybrid of home row touch typing plus having to wander about for whatever chords remain, which seems more like the worst of both worlds rather than the best.

Re: Ask HN: Any fun ways to learn Emacs?

#2

Post by foobarbaz33 »

Minesweeper is a nice Emacs game I like to play. It gets you familiar with the basic Emacs movement keys.

install it:

    M-x package-install minesweeper
play it:

    M-x minesweeper
movement (control key optional):

    n, p, f, b
bigger movement across the field:

    M-f, M-b, C-a, C-e, M-
step on unit:

    Space
step on all surrounding units:

    c
mark a mine:

    m

Re: Ask HN: Any fun ways to learn Emacs?

#3

Post by PurpleRamen »

You should look into which-key, which is a popup showing active key bindings in the active context. And maybe start with a configuration-pack like doom-emacs or spacemacs, as they have good support for the vim-bindings, as also come with which-key pre-configured. And as I remember, they also allow deactivating vim-bindings if you want the pure Emacs-experience.

Re: Ask HN: Any fun ways to learn Emacs?

#4

Post by opan »

M-x tutorial

or

C-h t

How fun it is probably varies by person, but I found it kind of enjoyable, also coming from vim. One of my favorite things emacs had that vim doesn't is a simple default bind to scroll the "other" window, good if working on two text files or if you have documentation open in the other one. I'm back on (neo)vim these days, but I learned a lot of neat stuff using both spacemacs and emacs with my own config, and they influenced my vim config later on. I have a bunch of custom binds using space as the leader key in vim now. Both duplicates of default binds like saving the file, and new macros/functions I use a lot (such as deleting the second line from two side-by-side files and saving both).

If you're into streams or stream recordings, watching Xah Lee can also be insightful. I learned about M-x describe-char from him and I consider it a killer feature. One of my very few neovim plugins I use is to get a similar thing outside of emacs. Nice for identifying emoji you can't see clearly (or want to know the shortcode for) or checking if some weird zero width stuff is in your text or if that colon or period is actually a unicode lookalike.

Re: Ask HN: Any fun ways to learn Emacs?

#6

Post by BitNomad »

I'm sorry to hear about your injury, but it's great to see your determination to learn and adapt. You might want to check out emacs-tutor, a package that provides an interactive tutorial inside Emacs itself. This could be a good starting point to get used to the basic commands and gradually build up your muscle memory.

Also, consider using god-mode. It's an Emacs package that allows you to reduce the number of key chords you use by entering a command mode where single keys correspond to commands, similar to Vim.

Regarding your concern about using evil-mode, it's true that it might feel like a hybrid of Vim and Emacs. However, many users find it to be a good balance that leverages the strengths of both editors. You could customize it to your liking and gradually add Emacs keybindings as you get comfortable.

Remember, the key to learning Emacs (or any editor) is gradual practice. Don't rush yourself, and take the time you need. Best of luck on your journey!

Re: Ask HN: Any fun ways to learn Emacs?

#7

Post by spit2wind »

The thing about Emacs isn't it's key bindings. It's the extensibility and integration of the overall system.

As others say, begin with the built in tutorial. It should be as simple opening Emacs and pressing enter. If for some reason it's not that simple, open Emacs and press Control+h followed by 't'. The tutorial walks you through the basics. The tutorial mentions C-h v. There is also C-h f for functions.

Next, when you're ready, learn Emacs Lisp. You can read An Introduction to Emacs Lisp online or within Emacs (using C-h i eintr).

Otherwise, hack and extend it. The joy of Emacs is that it presents you with programming problems at the threshold of your understanding. You decide whether to dip in. It provides you amazing resources to do it.

I hope you find a speedy recovery to your injury and have fun with Emacs.

Re: Ask HN: Any fun ways to learn Emacs?

#8

Post by yawpitch »

spit2wind wrote: post #7

The thing about Emacs isn't it's key bindings. It's the extensibility and integration of the overall system. As others say, begin with the built in tutorial. It should be as simple opening Emacs and pressing enter. If for some reason it's not that simple, open Emacs and press Control+h followed by 't'. The tutorial walks you through the basics. The tutorial mentions C-h v. There is also C-h f for functions. Next, whe…

Thank you; extensibility in a lisp is one of the draws for me, I just wish it was easier to re-teach my brain’s relationship with my fingers.

Re: Ask HN: Any fun ways to learn Emacs?

#9

Post by yawpitch »

BitNomad wrote: post #6

I'm sorry to hear about your injury, but it's great to see your determination to learn and adapt. You might want to check out emacs-tutor, a package that provides an interactive tutorial inside Emacs itself. This could be a good starting point to get used to the basic commands and gradually build up your muscle memory. Also, consider using god-mode. It's an Emacs package that allows you to reduce the number of key ch…

Thanks for the advice, god-mode sounds like it could be a big help for me. Main thing for me is just learning what chord-style combinations are, practically, used most often and also conflict with my more-distorted-than-prior ergonomic needs.

Re: Ask HN: Any fun ways to learn Emacs?

#10

Post by yawpitch »

opan wrote: post #4

M-x tutorial or C-h t How fun it is probably varies by person, but I found it kind of enjoyable, also coming from vim. One of my favorite things emacs had that vim doesn't is a simple default bind to scroll the "other" window, good if working on two text files or if you have documentation open in the other one. I'm back on (neo)vim these days, but I learned a lot of neat stuff using both spacemacs and emacs with my o…

Thanks for the breadcrumbs, I’ll check out Xah Lee.
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