You never need to remember keyboard shortcuts for major modes. When you forget, you can always bring a "cheatsheet" using "C-h m" which lists all key bindings of current major modes and minor modes. Every time I'm new to a major mode, I always use this table. If you forget any key binding but remember prefix key, I press + C-h to bring all the key bindings that start with that . If you ever forget key binding but remember the command, use helm-M-x that list key bindings along side with the commands. DEMO:
http://tuhdo.github.io/static/part3/helm-m-x.gif . In Emacs, I NEVER remember things consciously; I keep using something until it is recalled effortlessly. On the other hand, it's not like you don't have to remember things with those fancy GUIs. Take Eclipse as an example. You would have to steps through meaningless GUIs to configure something to work, and you have to remember those steps mechanically the next time you setup something. I would rather learn a consistent programming language with actual easy to remember rules to first configure simple things, and later extend my editor, rather than stepping through those meaningless GUIs.
And what you said that most of the stuff that are easily achievable with a mouse, try to do equivalent things like this in SECONDS: http://emacsrocks.com/. Well, that's why my co-workers work so hard why I have time to enjoy other things during my daily work.
What you said, like many other people who didn't learn Emacs properly or left it for so long that don't know what Emacs is currently capable of, is seriously outdated.
You should have a look at my post in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8639804 to see what Emacs is capable of that I could never find in any other editors, and even IDEs.
