
Switching to emacs (after 16 years of vim) - zeveb
https://kushaldas.in/posts/switching-to-emacs-land.html
======
pen2l
> It is there on default Fedora installation.

Come on, seriously? That's seriously your 'big reason' for switching? Guys
it's 2017, it's not that hard to apt-get install $FAVORITE_EDITOR and scp your
dotfiles, it takes less than a minute.

To any of the newbs out there, here's an advice I'll give that I wish someone
would have given me in my early years: IGNORE THE EDITOR EVANGELISTS. Vim,
emacs, visual studio, notepad, all of those things are inconsequential next to
an understanding of proper computer science concepts. I think I spent like an
year getting good at vim many years ago. I'm fairly good at vim now, but my
goodness do I regret having spent time on that, instead of, say, studying
proper maths, studying data structures, getting practice CODING.

I say this because I distinctly recall going over vim exercises, taking my
sweet time, and feeling good and thinking "Hmmm I'm really improving here!"
True, it's not a total waste of time, I'm just saying don't mistake editor
skill as a core skill. In other words, you can get a nice paying job if you
can put together a reasonably simple CRUD application made in notepad... but
you cannot get a job if you're REALLY GOOD at vim but are unable to do much
with it. Don't make the same mistake I did.

~~~
zzalpha
I've never really grasped the idea of "studying" an editor.

I switched to Vim from Emacs many years ago to deal with RSI. I learned the
basics and then just started using the damn thing. Periodically I'd go look up
a few tips or tricks and then keep on keeping on.

These are tools. The best way to learn how to use a tool is to use it, not sit
there studying how you might use it.

------
aaronchall
He mentions that the key factor in him choosing to try out emacs is orgmode.

I truly think orgmode is today's killer app for emacs. (A killer app is the
one app needed to make people pick up the tech -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_application](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_application)
.)

I have given 9 tech talks so far in my career - and I've written every talk in
orgmode. I've outlined training for support people in orgmode. I like to use
it to organize my work and notes on things I'm studying as well. My next big
project is to write a book using it.

Check out orgmode, learn what other value emacs creates, and consider adding
emacs to your toolbelt as well.

Some things I've been using emacs for:

    
    
      - text editing  
      - writing and running Python code and tests  
      - writing .tex files for LaTeX, previewing the pdfs *in* emacs  
      - erc - an IRC chat client  
      - subshells   
      - orgmode, of course
    

I know others use it for

    
    
      - email  
      - newsgroups  
      - web browsing
    

I feel like I'm just scratching the surface of the things I can do with it,
and I feel like emacs will be with me forever, so I want to use it to replace
my desktop gui operating system, to the greatest extent possible.

------
gumby
Rather than trying too hard, just learn Emacs incrementally. It's modeless by
default, like TextEdit.

You can get a lot done with a few commands: c-F (forward), c-B (backwards),
c-P (previous line), c-n (next line), c-S (incremental search -- the primary
motion command for most people). Find and save files (c-x c-f and c-x c-s
respectively). Once you are comfortable with that, every new command simply
adds to your abilities. There in no large bolus to learn in order to become
productive.

Disclaimer: I've been using, and modifying, Emacs since the late 1970s -- but
this is how I learned too.

