Emacs Users Are Like Terry Pratchett’s Igors (2013)
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Emacs Users Are Like Terry Pratchett’s Igors (2013)
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Re: Emacs Users Are Like Terry Pratchett’s Igors (2013)
#2using emacs was so revolutionary for me because I had never before thought about building an editor that fit my workflow. Before it was always trying to fit my workflow to fit my editor. The potential in emacs to be anything I wanted it to be was mind blowing.
Re: Emacs Users Are Like Terry Pratchett’s Igors (2013)
#3It sounds, from this description, like Lisp is similar to Perl - "There's more than one way to do it". i.e. extremely flexible, and the outcome is a lack of coherence, such that my Lisp code might look substantially different from yours, making it a nightmare to maintain.
I'm pretty sure that if I found myself doing development on my editor then this would be a form of procrastination because modifying the editor certainly ain't developing product related functionality. For me it's more effective to ignore or work around failings in my editor, or better yet, invest some time in trying to learn in more depth the functionality that is already present in my IDE that might approximately meet my need.
Re: Emacs Users Are Like Terry Pratchett’s Igors (2013)
#4using emacs was so revolutionary for me because I had never before thought about building an editor that fit my workflow. Before it was always trying to fit my workflow to fit my editor. The potential in emacs to be anything I wanted it to be was mind blowing.
How did it turn out?
Re: Emacs Users Are Like Terry Pratchett’s Igors (2013)
#5Emacs is the ultimate example of free software. You really do feel free in emacs, experimenting, tweaking.
Free as in breathing, free as in drinking water. Code is such an integral part of life that it is unthinkable that we cannot have control over it. Emacs gives you control, it gives you freedom.
I am amazed how Stallman got it right and invented on his principles. Thank you Dr. Stallman, thank you.
Re: Emacs Users Are Like Terry Pratchett’s Igors (2013)
#6It sounds, from this description, like Lisp is similar to Perl - "There's more than one way to do it". i.e. extremely flexible, and the outcome is a lack of coherence, such that my Lisp code might look substantially different from yours, making it a nightmare to maintain. I'm pretty sure that if I found myself doing development on my editor then this would be a form of procrastination because modifying the editor cer…
The codebase is as coherent as the author wants it to be, without the language imposing metaphors like objects or a pure functional style where they're not needed. Lisp won't force you to write bad code, but that means it can't force you to write good code, either: If your Lisp code is incoherent, that's on you.
Re: Emacs Users Are Like Terry Pratchett’s Igors (2013)
#7(2013)
Re: Emacs Users Are Like Terry Pratchett’s Igors (2013)
#8It sounds, from this description, like Lisp is similar to Perl - "There's more than one way to do it". i.e. extremely flexible, and the outcome is a lack of coherence, such that my Lisp code might look substantially different from yours, making it a nightmare to maintain. I'm pretty sure that if I found myself doing development on my editor then this would be a form of procrastination because modifying the editor cer…
The codebase is as coherent as the author wants it to be, without the language imposing metaphors like objects or a pure functional style where they're not needed. Lisp won't force you to write bad code, but that means it can't force you to write good code, either: If your Lisp code is incoherent, that's on you.
>> If your Lisp code is incoherent, that's on you.
It's actually on anyone who comes after.
That might be just me, or if the code is public it could be anyone.
Re: Emacs Users Are Like Terry Pratchett’s Igors (2013)
#9I wonder how “hackable” Electron editors fit in to this: might they be emacs for the masses?
Re: Emacs Users Are Like Terry Pratchett’s Igors (2013)
#10People who don't know how to program emacs don't get how easy it is to write some code in it to make your life easier.
Some say Atom and VSCode also have plugins. That's true, but can you write code to extend some VSCode functionality in a minute?
You just go to the scratch buffer, write some code, evalute it and it instantly becomes part of the editor. I don't know if there are other editors which can replicate this experience.