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A CEO's Guide to Emacs (2015)

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Re: A CEO's Guide to Emacs (2015)

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I use autocomplete for work in python, ruby, golang, C/C++, JavaScript, coffeescript, CSS and probably more in enacts. The trick is the setup, but I've only had problems with minor edge cases (like coffeescript 2). Either way I'll spend an hour and use Elisp to fix it. Really nothing I've found is even close to as robust

I've been using spacemacs for nearly 2 years now and autocomplete has mostly always worked right out of the box after installing the corresponding layer. I rarely even need to reboot Emacs.

Just curious... Does spacemacs only offer Vim keybindings, or does it support Vim macros as well?

Re: A CEO's Guide to Emacs (2015)

#152
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love Emacs. But there were no good multimodes 3 years ago. And autocompletion and hints are often a bitch to get working on things which are not C or C++. The moment you start editing files containing more than one language you're pushed to use a dedicated IDE. And then you discover the joy of "good enough". No need to tinker with config files to get the perfect setup: it works good enough to give you a productivit…

I came to the same realization about Vim about a year ago. I've used Sublime and Vim/Nvim extensively, and I've spent at least a few hours in Textmate, Emacs, Spacemacs, Notepad++, VS Code, and Atom as well. All of those text editors above have some excellent and unique redeeming qualities. But at the end of the day their actual language support tends to be weak. Now I do Python work in Pycharm, R work in Rstudio, an…

I'm grudgingly coming along.

I use vim for everything, but Intellij (because we have the licenses; I mainly use it for Python at the moment) has my attention. Wish I had more time to learn it; it has been a couple of months and I still don't feel really comfortable. But the capabilities actually make a difference.

Vim is never going away for me; muscle memory, if nothing else, ensures it will always be the most efficient way for me to type text and I spend most of my time in the terminal anyway. And as nice as it was when it was my go-to for everything, there are times when a special purpose editor has a place.

Re: A CEO's Guide to Emacs (2015)

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using spacemacs for nearly 2 years now and autocomplete has mostly always worked right out of the box after installing the corresponding layer. I rarely even need to reboot Emacs.

Just curious... Does spacemacs only offer Vim keybindings, or does it support Vim macros as well?

Evil mode itself allows for keyboard macros. I do believe there are ex-mode things that won't work but most users never even touch this stuff (i.e. if you press Q in vi/vim).

Spacemacs by extension integrates evil mode entirely, so keyboard macros are available.

Re: A CEO's Guide to Emacs (2015)

#154
"You can recognize emacs by the 'mode line' near the bottom of the screen. If you see anybody using it, fire them immediately - they may be a good programmer but they're going to cause more trouble than they are worth."

Re: A CEO's Guide to Emacs (2015)

#155

I've never been able to get into graphical emacs, but emacs-nox has been my terminal editor of choice since college. Coming from a Windows background, vi(m) was too weird to get used to.

I currently use Sublime Text 3, but I used to use Vim and NeoVim. One complaint I have with Sublime Text 3 is that many of the keybindings are "chords," and I seem to be developing pains in my wrists and elbows from frequently typing the more awkward ones. I've heard Emacs uses similar, chorded keybindings, only to the extreme. I think the problem with ST3 is that many of the chords are awkward to type. How is Emacs? Are the chords more natural, or would I be facing similar issues with chording?

Re: A CEO's Guide to Emacs (2015)

#156

Emacs and the Atreus keyboard and xmonad etc. are white elephants.

My experience with an Atreus was quite different. The hand positions were comfortable with the tilted, split sides of the keyboard. Using my thumbs for both Space and Enter was also nice. I especially liked the straight, vertical columns of the keyboard. They made touch typing much easier and faster than on a regular keyboard with offset rows. Overall, the Atreus was beneficial to my typing speed and also to my wrists, elbows, and back, since it helped align my body in a more natural typing position. What aspect of the Atreus keyboard do you feel renders it a white elephant?

Re: A CEO's Guide to Emacs (2015)

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. I didn't, but I might now. Dig this.

Hi there. Thanks for the article. I'm a newbie when it comes to emacs config files. You said, that we will put (add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/lisp/") in the .emacs file, but that was before we had created it. Then a few paragraphs later, when we finally do create it, you tell us to just put in ;; set up ido mode (require `ido) (setq ido-enable-flex-matching t) (setq ido-everywhere t) (ido-mode 1) Where do we put…

Disclaimer: I spend very little time configuring emacs these days, as it's working well for me, and there are others around who are much better at emacs than I am. There are likely better ways to do everything than I have, but I shared what works for me.

I've got the `(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/lisp/")` pretty early in the file. You can put the `(require `ido) (setq ido-enable-flex-matching t) (setq ido-everywhere t) (ido-mode 1)` where you like. Basically, you just need the lines in your .emacs file - if you add the reference prior to creating the directory and populating it, you'll get an error, but nothing will break. Add the directory and do a `M-x eval-buffer` and it'll pick it up without restarting emacs. Or just restart emacs. Hope this helps. Someone will tell you a better way.

Re: A CEO's Guide to Emacs (2015)

#158
Author here. In reading this thread, I'm struck that most of the objections to emacs are both legitimate (as are the arguments for it) and focused on programmer-specific issues. Back when I wrote the original post, I was experimenting with using emacs as a CEO who writes little code these days, but was dealing with a maelstrom of disparate information and interruption. It's been a very successful experiment, which I'll document in a follow up post soon. Glad that it got some good conversations going!

Re: A CEO's Guide to Emacs (2015)

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I came to the same realization about Vim about a year ago. I've used Sublime and Vim/Nvim extensively, and I've spent at least a few hours in Textmate, Emacs, Spacemacs, Notepad++, VS Code, and Atom as well. All of those text editors above have some excellent and unique redeeming qualities. But at the end of the day their actual language support tends to be weak. Now I do Python work in Pycharm, R work in Rstudio, an…

I'm hopeful that https://github.com/Microsoft/language-server-protocol will decouple some of these concerns. We've built support for it for our DSL, and it's pretty great so far (esp in VSCode). Emacs LSP support is still pretty slow, so I don't use it when in emacs at present, but it feels like the right direction for getting good language support into editors.

LSP seriously gives me hope for the future. It is an awesome project, and I'm looking forward to seeing more widespread editor support for it.

It's still fairly new so most solutions I've seen that use it still have some sharp edges.

Re: A CEO's Guide to Emacs (2015)

#160
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in the day our teaching assistance got pissed off that most people were using Emacs as if it was Notepad, and spent the rest of the programming lecture teaching how to use Emacs instead (about 1h). Which then became my to go editor in UNIX systems, until IDEs finally became a thing on UNIX.

I'm especially saddened when I see a lisp/clojure talk where the user navigate through emacs using arrows and the likes. A lisper not leveraging sexp ala paredit/parinfer is odd.

Common Lisp is my main language outside work (and I manage to use it for work now and then as well) and I use it with Emacs + Slime. I've been trying to get into Paredit and similar modes but they just annoy the fsck out of me.

Mind, I do use Evil so I'm getting some 'structured editing'-lite from that already.

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