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Use GNU Emacs

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Re: Use GNU Emacs

#111

Post by brabel »

quanticle wrote: post #100
logicchains wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use vanilla Emacs for everything. For me customisation isn't what matters, it's having an editor that will never lag, requires barely any ram, and can be used over SSH on pretty much any machine.

requires barely any ram It's incredible to me that our tools have bloated to the point where we look at Emacs and think, "Ah yes, what a svelte program!"

But Emacs is incredibly light for the current generation hardware... and it's been incredibly light for probably 15 years or more.

On my "small" laptop, I only use Emacs... Trying to run IntelliJ or VSCode makes the laptop burning hot and forces the fan to keep running. With Emacs, no matter what I do, it's always quiet and cool.

Re: Use GNU Emacs

#112

Post by ziotom78 »

For code, I use JetBrains IDEs (CLion, IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, Rider). They are incomparably better than any editor on Earth.

To edit large text files, I use Vim, as it is one of the fastest editors I've ever tried.

For anything else, I use Emacs: scripts, programs written in languages with no good IDE support, personal notes (Org mode is awesome!), handling of Git repositories (Magit is better than JetBrains IDEs), email (Notmuch). If only it could be made faster when editing large files…

Re: Use GNU Emacs

#113

Post by dmitriid »

quanticle wrote: post #103
oblio wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If your time is so limited, eliminating toil seems essential. The counter point to this is usually: What exactly is your toil as a professional software developer (or associated profession) that is eliminated with a "better"[1] editor in 2023? Refactoring is more powerful with an IDE, for mainstream languages. For non-mainstream languages 95% of what Emacs enables can be done using multi-cursors and a macro languag…

For non-mainstream languages 95% of what Emacs enables can be done using multi-cursors and a macro language built in to the editor, and we're in 2023. Those kinds of editors are a dime a dozen :-) Are they? Multi-cursors, sure, but what other editors have a macro language that combines the power and accessbility of emacs lisp? The only other one that comes close is vim, and, as many critiques as I have of emacs lisp,…

> but what other editors have a macro language that combines the power and accessbility of emacs lisp?

Is it accessible? Why would I want to spend time learning the idiosyncrasies of a 40-year-old editor to write something that I might use once in a blue moon?

I have other, more interesting things in life.

Re: Use GNU Emacs

#114

Post by dmitriid »

raverbashing wrote: post #63
adastra22 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Visual Studio Code now for pretty much this exact reason. The only configuration I need to do is to install the right language server extensions for the code I develop, but even this is mostly handled by the "It looks like you're writing Rust code. Do you want to install the extension to handle this file type?" dialog that pops up on first use. Everything is auto-updated, settings synchronized across devices, a…

Yeah, with more experience I have realized that most customization is not better A certain level yes, but doesn't need to be all, end all VSCode solves most of my issues. "oh but in Emacs you can do..." a thing that I either don't need, or I don't care about or I can do using a web service or some other offline program or maybe even a VSCode plugin or a short vim script.

> "oh but in Emacs you can do..." a thing that I either don't need, or I don't care about or

or it's already available in pretty much any IDE out of the box. Most people advocating for emacs or vim usually have no idea what a modern IDE is, and pretend modern IDEs have not surpassed win3.1 notepad in terms of functionality.

Re: Use GNU Emacs

#115

Post by dustfinger »

I have been using emacs since around 2005. If you are looking to immerse yourself in emacs, then I highly recommend switching your windows manager to EXWM [1]. If you are looking to get over the learning curve, then I recommend buying the book Mastering Emacs [2]. If you are interested in learning new and creative ways to use emacs, then I recommend attending the next emacs conference [3]. Also, please join #emacs on librechat [4]. For IRC on emacs I really love erc-mode [5].

[1]: https://github.com/ch11ng/exwm/wiki

[2]: https://www.masteringemacs.org/

[3]: https://emacsconf.org/

[4]: https://libera.chat/

[5]: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/erc.html

Re: Use GNU Emacs

#116

Post by otabdeveloper4 »

_y5hn wrote: post #97
otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using Emacs for 25 years, and I use a stock install and I never even touch the .emacs file. It's just a text editor. For many tasks it has better usability than the competition. This is why I use it. (Not for everything, though, and that's okay.) I'd guess most people are like me. Configuring text editors is not our hobby.

Spacemacs got lots configured out of the box, which allows to keep this workflow but still not miss out on much.

I don't care about LSP and today's iteration of "IntelliSense", so I'm not missing out much in any case.

Since most people today are more than happy to code in Jyputer notebooks (yuck), I guess I'm not actually that weird.

Re: Use GNU Emacs

#117

Post by mlatu »

adastra22 wrote: post #98
soraminazuki wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also get a portable power station too, to deal with battery life. ... or just don't run dozens of browsers on battery-powered devices.

8 hours battery while doing heavy development on apple silicon hardware, while being the fastest mobile dev machine I've ever owned. Seriously not an issue.

i admire their silicon for its power efficiency, i truly and honestly do. but i dislike the manufacturers' politics up until now.

if apple ever becomes a beacon of openness, transparency and sustainability: sign me up for the newsletter. i'll even consider their ridiculous pricetags if apple became comparable to, let's say MNT.

in the meantime im considering to switch my personal laptop over from a T220 to a mnt reform

Re: Use GNU Emacs

#118

Post by globular-toast »

Emacs is the only software I've ever loved. People use the word love a lot, but I really mean it. You know it's love when you can't stop thinking about it. You're so excited you want to tell everyone about it, but you can't really articulate what exactly it is that makes you feel that way.

Re: Use GNU Emacs

#119

Post by ninkendo »

pmontra wrote: post #80
mlatu wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i get that, though i would rather compare it with chopsticks than vinyl records. you use emacs to do stuff, you dont just listen to/watch it do its thing. chopsticks might not seem like a good metaphor at first glance, as they are much more simple, but they are highly compatible with a lot of tasks and can be utilized in many ways that a fork, spoon, spork or colander just wouldnt handle as well. to my mind, the simp…

As a westerner, chopsticks are much better than spoons or forks at getting that last grain of rice in the plate, or a small piece of salad.

They’re also great for eating Cheetos without getting orange residue on your fingers. :)

Re: Use GNU Emacs

#120

Post by axytol »

tmtvl wrote: post #75
sn41 wrote: post #45

OK. Here's a usecase where I found emacs to be wonderful. I had to email the grades, together with totals, and class averages to many students in a class. I tried fiddling with Excel and Google spreadsheets and scripted mail merges. Then I realized I could do it emacs. Export the gradesheet into csv, and convert to an org table. Carefully record a macro where you copy paste the name of the student the mark columns in…

You can do C-u 125 C-x e (or C-1 C-2 C-5 F4 ) to repeat a macro 125 times.

Or if you're confident enough in your macro definition you can do C-u 0 C-x e to repeat until it reaches the end of the buffer.
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