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Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

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Re: Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

#41

Post by liyanage »

parbo wrote: post #35
liyanage wrote: post #18

I tried to get into Emacs on OS X a few times, but one of the things I don't like is the awkwardness of not having the Meta key mapped to a direct simple key press. Activating the "Use option as meta key" isn't a good solution because I sometimes need to type accented characters that require the option key. How do people deal with this when using Emacs in the OS X Terminal app?

I use cmd for meta, there is an option for that: (setq mac-option-modifier nil mac-command-modifier 'meta)

I'll have to try that. Is this with the regular emacs in the Terminal app? Does it interfere with shortcuts like Cmd-N to open a new Terminal window?

Re: Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

#42

Post by asgard1024 »

I also recently started using Emacs. Not much progress in learning, yet, though.

It would be nice if someone made a nice starting package that would set it up more sanely for all the IDE-oriented people (basically take what modern IDE can do out of the box and setup Emacs that way). Something similar to what Ubuntu did for Linux. I have seen lots of personal configs on Github, and read lots of Emacs Wiki on how to set this and that, but it's still quite a struggle for me. Part of the struggle is that there are too many options sometimes.

Maybe someone will have a good suggestion regarding this.

Edit: Someone mentioned Prelude, didn't know about it. That looks good, like something I wanted.

Re: Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

#43

Post by philangist »

rickdale wrote: post #15

When I was in college I had the privilege to work on a project with a developer that understood emacs as on operating system and used it as a way of life. When we started the project he would yell at me whenever I took my hand off the keyboard and tried to use the mouse. Finally he started to hit my hand with a ruler when I would lift it up. My emacs skills are still probably only 1% of his, but after working that sh…

Was his name Mr. Miyagi?

Re: Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

#45

Post by lord_quas »

asgard1024 wrote: post #42

I also recently started using Emacs. Not much progress in learning, yet, though. It would be nice if someone made a nice starting package that would set it up more sanely for all the IDE-oriented people (basically take what modern IDE can do out of the box and setup Emacs that way). Something similar to what Ubuntu did for Linux. I have seen lots of personal configs on Github, and read lots of Emacs Wiki on how to se…

IDE's tend to be language specific while emacs tries to be agnostic. There are certainly options that could make your emacs a language specific IDE, for instance, look at emacs-live if you are doing clojure development.

Re: Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

#46

Post by lord_quas »

liyanage wrote: post #18

I tried to get into Emacs on OS X a few times, but one of the things I don't like is the awkwardness of not having the Meta key mapped to a direct simple key press. Activating the "Use option as meta key" isn't a good solution because I sometimes need to type accented characters that require the option key. How do people deal with this when using Emacs in the OS X Terminal app?

I use Caps-lock as control and Command as meta. Has worked great for me.

Re: Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

#47

Post by singular »

tazjin wrote: post #8
singular wrote: post #3

> There are other options, like Aquamacs, which are supposed to make Emacs more "Mac-like", but they're problematic in the long run because they're set up so differently from standard Emacs that it's difficult to use the Emacs manual or follow along with tutorials. Having used emacs on linux, windows and now mac I disagree with this - though aquamacs introduces some (annoying, to me) functionality, you can simply tur…

When you say vanilla emacs, do you include the Cocoa version? ( http://emacsformacosx.com/ ) I'm using that many hours every day and have zero problems. Regarding fullscreen, if you use a recent build both native and non-native fullscreen are supported.

Yes, I tried the cocoa version and that's what I'm referring to. I recall having real issues in particular with ansi-term not having the environment correctly set + simply not being able to resolve that.

I'm pretty sure I had other issues too, but I can't remember them.

To be fair, I've not tried the cocoa version or any other for some time, so things may have changed.

However, I still think OP's point was unfair on aquamacs - other than some (annoying!) quirks regarding autofonts and tabs (I instantly turn those off), it's no different than emacs anywhere else, in my experience.

Re: Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

#49

Post by lord_quas »

outworlder wrote: post #24

Finally an introduction that has screenshots which don't remind you of the 70's. Fonts and color schemes do matter, specially nowadays with the likes of Sublime and Textmate. Even more so for new users.

This is one of the most beautiful theme I've come across, and the one I am currently using:

https://github.com/jasonm23/emacs-purple-haze-theme

Re: Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

#50

Post by goblinfoblin »

asgard1024 wrote: post #42

I also recently started using Emacs. Not much progress in learning, yet, though. It would be nice if someone made a nice starting package that would set it up more sanely for all the IDE-oriented people (basically take what modern IDE can do out of the box and setup Emacs that way). Something similar to what Ubuntu did for Linux. I have seen lots of personal configs on Github, and read lots of Emacs Wiki on how to se…

The starter packages like prelude and emacs-starter-kit are more like a learning to walk with a crutch when you have perfectly working legs. They offer an easy way to start but once you start using them you'll find it hard to do it the normal way (like when you need to modify your emacs config or add some new elisp that isn't included).

It is better just to start emacs do C-h t and start learning, then add and configure when needed. You'll need to start out rough but after a while you'll learn how emacs works and be a better emacs user because of it.

Though if you don't invest in emacs and just need it to finish your thesis or because a professor won't let you use anything else then the starter kits could be fine as they are pre-configured.

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