Emacs 26.2 Released

Thank you so much for Emacs, and congratulations on the new release!

Emacs is reliable, fast and elegant, and a joy to use as a truly integrated environment for all kinds of tasks, including software development.

Since it was painful to do, here's what I put in my .emacs to bring back macOS Cmd-keybindings in Mituharu's Emacs:

    ; Configure shortcuts if we're using Mituharu's Mac port of Emacs
    (when (eq window-system 'mac)
      (progn
        (message "Setting emacs-mac keybindings")
        (setq mac-option-modifier 'meta)
        ;supposedly setting this to 'nil gives them back to OS X, but that didn't work for me
        (setq mac-command-modifier 'super)
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-q") 'save-buffers-kill-emacs)
        ;I hate ⌘-w killing a window, too close to alt-w (copy). Deactivated
        ;(global-set-key (kbd "s-w" 'delete-frame)
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-a") 'mark-whole-buffer)
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-s") 'save-buffer)
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-d") 'isearch-repeat-backward)
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-f") 'isearch-forward)
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-g") 'isearch-repeat-forward)
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-z") 'undo)
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-x") 'kill-region)
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-c") 'kill-ring-save) ;ns has ns-copy-including-secondary, on mac- port, kill-ring-save works the same
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-v") 'yank)
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-y") 'yank) ;ns-paste-secondary
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-u") 'revert-buffer)
        ;(global-set-key (kbd "s-o") 'ns-open-file-using-panel) ;no good alternative
        ;(global-set-key (kbd "s-p") 'ns-print-buffer) ;no good alternative
        ;(global-set-key (kbd "s-h") 'ns-do-hide-emacs) ;done by default
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-j") 'exchange-point-and-mark)
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-k") 'kill-this-buffer)
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-l") 'goto-line)
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-n") 'make-frame)
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-m") 'iconify-frame)
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-`") 'other-frame)
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-,") 'customize)
        (global-set-key (kbd "s-'") 'next-multiframe-window)
      )
    )

As someone who recently saw the light, and converted to Emacs (spacemacs), I am absolutely delighted that its going strong.

Emacs is the most delightful software I have ever used. I could evolve a flexible todo management productivity workflow, start writing a journal and start writing new posts in a distraction free environment all using Org Mode in just two days. A complete win for someone who went back to paper (rather unsuccessfully) to organize to-dos after finding digital tools inflexible.

And for python development on remote machine, I get editing and autocomplete on remote systems out of the box (spacemacs) due to Tramp. I was like wtf, why didn't I start using this beautiful piece of software years back.

The way Emacs is a programmable platform really changes how I view what a good software should be. For instance, I was documenting a machine learning experiment in org mode file. I wanted to mention a metrics result generated as json by my machine learning code. I could just embed sh into the org file, execute it (on the remote machine without friction) and print result directly into the org file. I can trivially compare results in two files and record it back into org mode easily, even on a remote system.

It has made me think that we need more software which erases distinction of programming as something distinct from using software.

I have been using GNU Emacs since the late 1980s. It has been my life's editor, so to speak. At 59 1/2, it seems unlikely that I will ever switch to another editor. It's served me well. I am grateful to the hackers that created it.

What’s a good resource for learning emacs for someone who’s been using vim for more than 20 years?