

Thoughts on Learning Emacs - codeup
http://wideaperture.net/blog/?p=3058

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mrspeaker
The hardest thing about getting started with emacs is finding information
about getting started with emacs. You get the "learn emacs in 10 minute"
guides that show you how to open a file, and move up a line, and then after
that everything goes off a cliff into installing packages and writing lisp.

It's hard to get a sense for the "overview" of what emacs is about - what you
should learn first, how to customize your setup, and where you should go next.
It feels like walking in to a party full of really really really smart
strangers.

Like a party full of smart strangers, once you get going it's fine... but most
people don't stick around that long.

~~~
derrida
One way is to commit to using emacs for everything, now, and then slowly 'dig
your way out'.

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__david__
That is how I had to start. I just decided I would use it and be completely
overwhelmed for a couple weeks. It also helps if you have a proficient Emacs
use sitting nearby that so that you can constantly ask how do things.

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gvnonor
The single best thing I did to become proficient using Emacs was to switch my
CapsLock key to Ctrl. Learning to touch type comes a close second.

~~~
angus77
I would've thought it'd be the other way around. Why would you bother with a
text editor if you're not motivated enough to learn how to type?

~~~
gvnonor
Learning to use a text editor(or atleast trying) is easier than learning to
touch type but anyway people kept touting the power of Emacs and how
extensible it was and I decided to give it a shot. On trying Emacs, I loved
features such as being able to run a shell, a really good python mode and the
extensibility using .emacs files.

However since Emacs has a lot of key sequences for navigating between text,
modifying text and doing pretty much anything involves not using the mouse, it
got really frustrating looking at the keyboard every 2 seconds courtesy my
typing illiteracy. So I decided to learn touch typing just so that I could use
Emacs properly.

One interesting little tidbit.. I had tried around 3 or 4 times previously to
learn touch typing but failed. However after I started learning both Emacs and
touch typing simultaneously, I succeeded. So I guess the relation is somewhat
symbiotic, learning to touch type helped me learn emacs and vice versa.

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robinramael
I started out with technomancy's emacs-starter kit, but I started to roll my
own (complete rm -rf .emacs.d) when I tried to then add functionality myself,
ran in to trouble and got yelled at in #emacs for using the starter kit.
Installed package.el and everytime I missed something from the kit, I'd
install it myself (paredit, winner, ido, ...).

I would still recommend the starter kit for absolute beginners because it
gives you a running start and a good idea of what kind of stuff is out there.

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officemonkey
There were thoughts, but they weren't about learning Emacs.

IMO, it was just another Emacs advocacy article. The only thing I learned is
that there is an org-mode iPhone app.

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shuaib
Oo boy! I hope no one brings up the comparison to Vi now. (Ooops!)

Let the holy war begin.

~~~
jerrya
How times have changed. I have discovered that we are friends with vi &
Klingons, and we are at war with eclipse, netbeans, and the borg.

~~~
brendoncrawford
Eclipse has an emacs mode built in.

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alayne
Eclipse has a set of Emacs key bindings, but it's hard for me to use because I
have muscle memory of features that don't exist in Eclipse (prefix arguments,
buffer manipulation, and so on). The Emacs+ plugin is better, but I honestly
prefer to use the normal bindings rather then get tripped up repeatedly by
fake Emacs.

