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Two Years of Emacs Solo

rahuljuliato.com

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Re: Two Years of Emacs Solo

#51

Post by imiric »

shevy-java wrote: post #40
k_bx wrote: post #31

> — Sensible file handling: backups and auto-saves in a cache/ directory, recentf for recent files, clean buffer naming with uniquify It's crazy to me how out of the box when you edit nginx file at /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/foo it creates another file foo~ there and nginx tries to load that too When I tried to ask emacs reddit community they started attacking me for changing the default that only I need and fits every…

I always disable those auto-backup-files features in any editor I use. Never understood why that was the default-on for so many editors.

It can be handy. It gives you an additional safety net on top of the VCS that runs automatically in the background. It doesn't take much to configure it to your liking, e.g. [1].

[1]: https://gist.github.com/imiric/812398910c59cf00ab43d9172fe42...

Re: Two Years of Emacs Solo

#53

Post by k_bx »

noosphr wrote: post #47
k_bx wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I’ve added this to hundreds of containers and vms at this point (setq make-backup-files nil)

Just use tramp mode instead. The fact it can do multi-hop edits is far too much power for us mere mortals.

It's a very different experience:

- I already have tmux launched, if ssh drops – I can continue

- I don't have to match windows to ssh sessions -- just have them in my tmux

Re: Two Years of Emacs Solo

#55

Post by dhosek »

bandrami wrote: post #45
shevy-java wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always disable those auto-backup-files features in any editor I use. Never understood why that was the default-on for so many editors.

It made more sense when running editors over tenuous telnet connections was more common

The kids really have no idea how tenuous computing in general was back in the olden days. Some of the stability issues in the 20th century translated to modern systems would be akin to black smoke coming out of your computer if you happened to have the wrong two programs running at the same time.

Re: Two Years of Emacs Solo

#56

Post by dhosek »

throwaway27448 wrote: post #7
wilkystyle wrote: post #2

> That means the code is sketchy sometimes, sure, but it's in my control. I wrote it, I understand it, and when it breaks, I know exactly where to look. This resonates with me so hard. I'm not a "no external packages" purist, but there are a number of pieces of functionality that I wrote for myself because there wasn't anything quite like what I wanted. One example is a function to expand the region (selection) to an…

> "w" to select what Vim considers a lowercase-w word ?!? Wtf does this mean and how did vi come up

Because any mention of Emacs must bring out the vi people, just as any mention of vi must bring out the Emacs people.

Because you people are cracking your eggs from the wrong end!

Re: Two Years of Emacs Solo

#57

Post by rkomorn »

dhosek wrote: post #56
throwaway27448 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "w" to select what Vim considers a lowercase-w word ?!? Wtf does this mean and how did vi come up

Because any mention of Emacs must bring out the vi people, just as any mention of vi must bring out the Emacs people. Because you people are cracking your eggs from the wrong end!

> Because you people are cracking your eggs from the wrong end!

That's because both ends are wrong. Eggs should be cracked from the side.

Can't believe this still needs to be said on this forum in 2026.

Re: Two Years of Emacs Solo

#58

Post by mhd »

NetOpWibby wrote: post #27

I’m always impressed by people who are hardcore EMacs or Vim devs, their setups are impressive af. I’m a GUI guy though. As soon as I try delving in, I abort when I see things like “just type c-C dingle bob to do x thing.” I’m happy these people found something that works with their brains. I just want a GUI that works like what they use. I recently saw a Zed fork stripped of AI stuff but there’s no binaries yet (you…

I'd say most people run Emacs in the GUI mode, not in a terminal. So these days, you're pretty much on the same level as most rivals.

Sadly, "these days" is a low bar. The days of consistent platform-specific "Human Interface Guidelines" are over, it's all just a browser wrapped in a top-level window or something that simulates that, with most interaction patterns being a cargo cult of how it's remembered from the 90s. So "GUI" means that some unique overlays can be drawn without a fixed width character grid and that you might get the original file requester now and then.

Re: Two Years of Emacs Solo

#59

Post by draxil »

k_bx wrote: post #31

> — Sensible file handling: backups and auto-saves in a cache/ directory, recentf for recent files, clean buffer naming with uniquify It's crazy to me how out of the box when you edit nginx file at /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/foo it creates another file foo~ there and nginx tries to load that too When I tried to ask emacs reddit community they started attacking me for changing the default that only I need and fits every…

emacs users who are hostile to you configuring things, aren't really getting the point IMO :)

Re: Two Years of Emacs Solo

#60

Post by parasti »

k_bx wrote: post #31

> — Sensible file handling: backups and auto-saves in a cache/ directory, recentf for recent files, clean buffer naming with uniquify It's crazy to me how out of the box when you edit nginx file at /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/foo it creates another file foo~ there and nginx tries to load that too When I tried to ask emacs reddit community they started attacking me for changing the default that only I need and fits every…

I would fault nginx here instead. Tilde-suffixed backups is an old convention used by vim and emacs among others. Definitely older than nginx.
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