

Tips for the aspiring Emacs playboy - kirubakaran
http://www.lispcast.com/drupal/9-Tips-for-the-aspiring-Emacs-playboy.html

======
revertts
I'm going to have to disagree with '6. Keep Your Keybindings Standard.'

When I started with emacs, there were some bindings that would make my hands
ache after a day of use, usually from the transition between difficult
keybindings, not any one key combination in isolation. One of the first things
I did was add in the ergoemacs bindings, and I never regretted it. It's not as
if doing so made me suddenly forget what the old bindings were, although I am
slower during the rare cases when I'm on the normal keybindings. But it's a
small price to pay for not having my fingers hate me.

Editors are meant to be customized to your workflow and what works best for
you.

~~~
silentbicycle
I agree with you about the default keybindings (they're _sadistic_ ), _but_ I
think that people will have an easier time learning Emacs if they wait to
start rebinding things until they're familiar with the conventions.* There are
a lot of patterns in the way keybindings are defined for various major modes,
for example, and rebinding everything to make it more like textmate or
whatever obscures them. Also, it's a good idea to check if new bindings are
replacing another highly useful command, particularly if one doesn't know how
to access it otherwise.

Some of this probably matters less if using Emacs on other peoples' computers
isn't an issue, though. (Same with using Dvorak or other layouts.)

* Perhaps around the time they start learning Elisp, rather than copying and modifying other peoples' config files. Nothing wrong with doing that, just, that comes much earlier.

------
r00k
This is a great article for users of ANY editor. I'm a vim user and got a lot
out of it.

Even more, many of these tips are abstract enough to be applicable to users of
almost any complicated software tool, particularly ones used for hours a day.

~~~
ljlolel
You're right. The article is good, and reminds me of some very good tips given
by the creator of VIM (Bram Moolenaar) in a Google Tech Talk:

<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2538831956647446078>

------
dryicerx
Don't forget the <http://www.emacswiki.org/> A bit messy site, but the single
greatest resource for emacs user.

------
videophile
Ok, I'm not a PC-nazi but I think someone needs to call the article out:

This is generic claptrap ("use help"?! he, and it's pretty clear it's a he,
could have at least looked at how hard emacs help is to use for beginners)
interspersed with sexist pictures and commentary. It is offputting to many
people, and I'd like to see my favorite editor associated with higher caliber
tutorials.

~~~
kiba
I do not understand how these pictures are sexist.

~~~
jrockway
Only men should be using computers, _duh_.

------
bkudria
Thanks for posting this. The other content on the site is pretty good too!

------
dexen
I can't agree with the `2. Don't use the mouse'. Unless Emacs' mouse support
is completely broken (doubtful), mouse is only going to increase
productiveness.

[http://plan9.bell-
labs.com/wiki/plan9/Mouse_vs._keyboard/ind...](http://plan9.bell-
labs.com/wiki/plan9/Mouse_vs._keyboard/index.html)

~~~
silentbicycle
I have an immediate, almost visceral disagreement with the suggestion that a
mouse is more efficient, but I may be wrong. For sake of argument: I think the
"just pointing vs. using the keyboard and getting more thought involved about
structure disrupts the sense of time" argument may have something to it.
Still, using a keyboard well counterbalances this by being able to take
advantage of greater structure - I very frequently use elaborate keyboard
macros, for example, and the mouse doesn't have any clear way to say, "Ok, the
thing I just did, apply that in a batch to the rest of those that look like a
C function prototype." The mouse is more immediate, but you can do more
powerful manipulation with the keyboard _if_ you know the program's keyboard
shortcuts, etc. (That's not necessarily a good trade-off for many kinds of
programs, but for a text editor / IDE, it's probably worthwhile.)

While there have been some attempts to do that with mice (such as mouse
gestures), by design, mice are about position, changes of position, with a few
buttons as flags. There aren't enough distinctive signals.

Also: The Emacs mouse support is not great. It probably hasn't been a high
priority.

~~~
dmhouse
"Also: The Emacs mouse support is not great. It probably hasn't been a high
priority."

In what way? It's certainly as good as it is in any other editor, with the
addition of several very Emacs-esque mouse-driven commands. For example, right
click marks the region from point to the click point and saves it in the kill
rin (like M-w); double right click kills that region. Using M- does the same,
but modifies the secondary selection. Using C- with the mouse pops up several
useful context menus. Try playing around with C-h k <mouse button> in various
contexts.

