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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?

#31
Use vim in insert mode?

https://stackoverflow.com/a/11464768/3529997

Additionally, there's something called "Easy mode", started from vim -y or evim. It's a more radical departure than just starting in insert mode: it has some key bindings matching other editors', and normal-mode commands are done by hitting Ctrl+O instead of Esc. As a consequence of that, being in insert mode is the rule rather than the exception.

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

#32
post #20
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like it was. Ghostbuster.app reports 93% probability and gptzero.me reports 100%. I was pleasantly surprised that the message started empathetically because none of the other responses did. But it makes more sense now, an LLM would do that.

Indeed, LLMs have that distintive and slightly revolting quality of friendly, helpful and inoffensive tone that reminds me of American customer service ideals. Also the user's profile is equally toeing this line of uncanny valley. I guess the only way to identify ourselves as human is to adopt a measure of rudeness, some grammatical mistakes and snark that those stupid AIs still try to avoid at all costs.

Hey, but at least it values equality and diversity.

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

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 som…

Using meow:https://github.com/meow-edit/meow I actually got keybindings in Emacs that are helix-like, so I use helix for certain projects and Emacs for others.

The muscle memory transfers well.

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

#34
I use evil, and prefer it to Emacs' native bindings. Evil overwrites some native Emacs binds, and the rest can still be used. This kind of a hybrid system is very useful IMO. For example, I can hit to record a macro. Instead of having to remember a register and being careful not to hit q, I can do practically anything. Being able to write your own functions is amazing.

I'd recommend trying to write small programs in elisp to get familiar with emacs. - Message the current buffer's path - run an async command - copy the line in the center of a buffer and restore position - make a simple transient for command dispatch

I'd start with doom-emacs and if you feel your config is too cumbersome, you could move to a custom setup with elpaca and evil. Doom is good enough for most people and has config for most languages. The leader bindings in doom are pretty decent, SPC f f is much more preferable to :e.

Making your own transient menu will be very helpful if you're planning on picking up Emacs IMO.

If you need something that works everywhere, then unless you're okay with the default settings you're going to have to lug your config around with you. Evil can be installed through package-install trivially, so that's not an issue.

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

#35

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-la…

> I consider emacs bindings awful

Mapping control to caps lock is the first step to Emacs enlightenment.

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

#36
Interview with an Emacs Enthusiast in 2023 [Colorized]:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urcL86UpqZc

Interview with a GNU/Linux user - Partition 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE4UXdJSJM4

Deldo - Vibration Control and Teledildonics Mode for Emacs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1sXuHnf_lo

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

#37
I think the only way to learn it is long, slow practice. There’s a how-to linked on the splash page and an extensive wiki, but otherwise it’s just going to be a process.

I personally love Emacs and have lost interest in learning anything else, but “fun” isn’t the right word for the learning curve. “Pain” might be closer to the mark.

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

#40
I started with emacs and then eventually found my way to Doom emacs, which is heavily built around evil. I now far prefer the vim bindings of evil. I’d say there’s value trying vanilla emacs first, but then I’d have no reservations diving into something like Doom.

I’d suggest, in order:

1. Do the tutorial

2. Read Mastering Emacs (for some higher level design philosophy stuff)

3. Install Doom

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