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Ask HN: Any fun ways to learn Emacs?

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

#21

Post by hprotagonist »

really i think the game is:

  C-h t RET
and then

  touch notes.org && emacs notes.org
and then futz around! The tutorial should tell you what C-h v and C-h f do, so those will be handy. I like helpful.el for a nicer/more thorough interface that's not quite info, and I really like vertico/consult/marginalia for making M-x nicely searchable with hints and stuff.

For navigation, i like devil-mode, avy, eglot/xref, transient, hydra.

I don't really like starter kits like doom, but they're popular and i guess people like them.

package.el is fine for installing packages, but i use straight.el or elpaca.

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

#23

Post by licebmi__at__ »

As an emacs fan, I consider emacs bindings awful, so I wouldn't recommend learning emacs style navigation.

And as other people mentioned, the big part of emacs is on the extensibility of the system itself, everything is manageable by the lisp engine as emacs is the lisp engine more than a simple editor.

So my recommendation to learn emacs in a fun way is to install evil, open a buffer, bind `eval-buffer` and `eval-last-sexp` to something you feel comfortable, and write your own game to learn what emacs can do.

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

#24

Post by spit2wind »

wiktor-k wrote: post #18
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…

> The thing about Emacs isn't it's key bindings. It's the extensibility and integration of the overall system. Well, I guess Emacs is many things to different people. After using Helix for quite some time the single thing I missed was exactly the Emacs keybindings. Not plugins, although I've used quite a lot of them.

I miss the bindings, too, when using applications that don't support them. In those situations (and other situations beyond simple key assignment), I reach for the extensibility to modify the system...and find nothing that compares.

I'm curious, what do you like about the Emacs key bindings? Is it the GNU system integration, like with Bash?

At some level the keybindings are arbitrary. Some were designated before the contemporary keyboard existed. Of course, they may fit you better just because and that's great.

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

#26

Post by trelane »

spit2wind wrote: post #24
wiktor-k wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The thing about Emacs isn't it's key bindings. It's the extensibility and integration of the overall system. Well, I guess Emacs is many things to different people. After using Helix for quite some time the single thing I missed was exactly the Emacs keybindings. Not plugins, although I've used quite a lot of them.

I miss the bindings, too, when using applications that don't support them. In those situations (and other situations beyond simple key assignment), I reach for the extensibility to modify the system...and find nothing that compares. I'm curious, what do you like about the Emacs key bindings? Is it the GNU system integration, like with Bash? At some level the keybindings are arbitrary. Some were designated before the…

For me, it's being able to do much, much more than the "standard" editor keys, and the (mostly) coherence. And the ability to easily add more to do what I want.

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

#27

Post by wiktor-k »

spit2wind wrote: post #24
wiktor-k wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The thing about Emacs isn't it's key bindings. It's the extensibility and integration of the overall system. Well, I guess Emacs is many things to different people. After using Helix for quite some time the single thing I missed was exactly the Emacs keybindings. Not plugins, although I've used quite a lot of them.

I miss the bindings, too, when using applications that don't support them. In those situations (and other situations beyond simple key assignment), I reach for the extensibility to modify the system...and find nothing that compares. I'm curious, what do you like about the Emacs key bindings? Is it the GNU system integration, like with Bash? At some level the keybindings are arbitrary. Some were designated before the…

> I'm curious, what do you like about the Emacs key bindings? Is it the GNU system integration, like with Bash?

Nah, I actually don't use them I'm Bash that frequently.

It may be just due to the non-modal way of the hot keys. With Helix I frequently press Esc far too many times to be sure I'm in a right mode (just like I press C on a calculator a couple of times to clear it).

I've got caps remapped to control and somehow most of the shortcuts that I use quickly got into my muscle memory in a way that Helix's don't. I guess it's just hard for me to put into words why is that.

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

#28

Post by anthk »

This is Emacs, you can just use the menu items for almost any option.

You learn one chord: Ctrl-h m, to describe the keys on the mode you are.

For instance, run Alt-x eww (intro), now you are at Emacs' web browser. Press ctrl-h m to show the keys for eww.

Also, basics to navigate with multiple windows:

ctrl-x 0: close the other windows

ctrl-x 1: set the current window as a single, enlarged one.

ctrl-x b: switch between buffers

ctrl-g : cancel, everywhere.

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

#29

Post by chuckadams »

Having used emacs for over 30 years, I suggest that the first thing you'll want to learn is how to bind keys. The default keymaps for nearly everything in emacs are generally awful. Just search for "my .emacs file" or "dot emacs gist" and you'll find oodles of examples to start from.

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

#30

Post by kfogel »

The most important factor in my learning Emacs was doing it in a room with experienced Emacs users. I really strongly recommend doing this if you possibly can. A few minutes of an experienced user shoulder-surfing while I worked, and giving advice on better ways to do things, was worth hours of self-directed study.

Get together with experienced users in person and have them watch you edit. That's it.

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