
A CEO's Guide to Emacs - ingve
https://blog.fugue.co/2015-11-11-guide-to-emacs.html
======
brandonmenc
Reading this gave me flashbacks. Horrible, horrible flashbacks.

I used to live in emacs - for years. Browsed the web with it, controlled music
playback (via mpd) with it - everything. Nowadays, imo, a combination of
Spotlight, tmux with a hotkey drop down terminal, Evernote, and JetBrains IDEs
gets you 90% of the way there.

At some point you realize that work requires orders of magnitude more time
thinking, reading, and communicating than it does typing. Optimizing your work
environment for finger travel just doesn't make sense.

~~~
AlamPo
Mm, I don't actually see anything about finger travel in Josh's article. The
main advantages he talks about are "no more context switching", "taking
everything with you and keeping it forever", and that he likes being able to
fullscreen emacs as a complete workflow with no external distractions. You
have to admit, these are not as easily done with a multi-program, IDE-heavy
workflow.

~~~
brandonmenc
From the article:

> I have a dual monitor set up at my desk. One of them is in portrait mode
> with Emacs full screened all day long. The other one has web browsers for
> researching and reading; it usually has a terminal open as well. I keep my
> calendar, email, etc., on another desktop in OS X, which is hidden while I'm
> in Emacs, and I keep all notifications turned off.

You don't need emacs to do this. Fullscreen a JetBrains IDE and install the
Org4Idea plugin.

I beat the JetBrains drum a lot, but emacs/vi users don't realize how much
functionality is integrated and keyboard-driven in their products - and,
importantly, it's built-in (no plugins) and sanely pre-configured. "I thought
only emacs could do this" was my reaction when I switched.

~~~
narrowrail
Doesn't Jetbrains require Java? And, isn't Evernote a web service we don't
know the ultimate fate of yet? I am just barely competent using Vim, and I am
in the process of learning Lisp before I explore Emacs as an option. I just
don't think the services you purpose as substitutes really fit the bill; they
are simpler to use, especially at the beginning, but long-term I don't think
they are replacements.

~~~
brandonmenc
> Doesn't Jetbrains require Java?

It's 2015. That's a concern for practically nobody.

------
melling
I think helm is the new thing that replaces ido:

[https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm](https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm)

Ace Jump is pretty incredible. All editors and IDE's should be required to
implement it. Here's a video demo:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZkpmegySnc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZkpmegySnc)

Easy Motion does the same thing in vim:
[http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3526](http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3526)

~~~
numlocked
Helm is terrific. I switched to it from ido in the past 6 months and it's
really increased my efficiency. In particular helm + projectile allows me to
_really_ quickly switch between projects and navigate to the file I need. I
remapped some of the most-used emacs commands to their helm equivalent's and
haven't looked back:

    
    
      (global-set-key (kbd "C-x r l") 'helm-bookmarks)
      (global-set-key (kbd "M-x") 'helm-M-x)
      (global-set-key (kbd "M-y") 'helm-show-kill-ring)
      (global-set-key (kbd "C-x b") 'helm-mini)
      (global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-f") 'helm-find-files)
      (global-set-key (kbd "C-c g") 'helm-git-grep)
      (global-set-key (kbd "C-c C-.") 'helm-git-grep-at-point)
      (global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-d") 'helm-browse-project)
    

My one complaint is getting used to C-z to drill into a directory when
navigating the file system with helm-find-files. I haven't et figured out a
way to map RET to do anything other than open the selected directory in Dired.

~~~
CodyReichert
Does TAB not work for you to drill into a directory? I never have to use C-z
in helm-find-files, just a simple `C-x f`, type a few characters, TAB expands
the directory, and ENTER opens the file or directory.

------
philsnow
Nobody is going to read this since this post is over a day old, but:

Emacs searches not only ~/.emacs but also ~/.emacs.d/init.el (and probably
more) places for its init file. So you don't have to mess around with
symlinks, you can just have a synced folder that is your ~/.emacs.d and have
init.el be at the top of that folder.

------
numlocked
This is a nice intro guide to emacs, but I think it goes without saying that
if your CEO decides to learn emacs from scratch, you are in big trouble.

I say this as a dedicated, daily user of emacs and co-founder of a startup.
Realistically it takes a year to get the hang of emacs to the point where you
are more efficient in it than in other editors. The last thing I want my CEO
(and friend and cofounder) doing is battling a weird Drop symlink issue with
his .emacs file.

But I do agree that org-mode is amazing :)

~~~
pvdebbe
I don't think it goes at all without saying?! Are all CEOs obliged to use MS
Office, arguably inferior editing experience to pure text editing, or be
doomed to yakshaving their dotfiles?

~~~
KC8ZKF
Emacs out of the box works.

Unfortunately there is a misconception that you need a 10kloc init.el to be
productive. Worse still are the opinionated configurations targeted at newbs.

~~~
pen2l
emacs out of the box _most definitely_ does not work well. You could say that
vim works out of box -- most vi people don't end up customizing their editors
up the wazoo like emacs people do at least.

(By the way I say this is as an emacsian)

~~~
greglindahl
If you're an emacsian, I'm not surprised that you think emacs needs
customization for your use. As an emacsian, years ago I decided to stop
customizing it, and guess what? Works great for me. So, as you can see,
opinions about this differ.

------
ktamura
Although I am not a CEO (but a marketer), I have a similar setup using Acme. I
do all my note-taking inside Acme and have my plumbing logic set up so that
all documents/JIRA issues/etc. are a single click away.

I think there is something to be said about using a few (if not one) text-
centric tool to get stuff done: it's much lower on your cognitive load and
wears you out less.

~~~
rkallos
I would love to see some of your Acme setup. Emacs and Acme are my two
favorite editors, but using Acme is a little less feasible for me due to not
having found a proper (3-button + trackball) mouse to use with it. While I was
using Acme, though, I did get most of the way there using the mod keys to
simulate clicks.

~~~
ktamura
>Acme is a little less feasible for me due to not having found a proper
(3-button + trackball) mouse to use with it.

I use Evoluent at home and HP's 3-button mouse on the go
([http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/oas/product-
detail.html?oi...](http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/oas/product-
detail.html?oid=403895)): while Evoluent is more ergonomic, it's too bulky to
be portable.

------
andrewrothman
CEO's Guide to Vim:

    
    
      1. Press `Escape` key
      2. ":q!"
    

Jokes aside, text files are a wonderful medium. Not everything can be
expressed easily as text, but I highly recommend using it to everybody for
whatever can. Emacs may not be the best tool for less technologically literate
individuals (for this Atom or Sublime Text are very good), but the format is
certainly very useful. I think people should look into using the command line
more, as it can be much more productive after a period of learning.

------
Walkman
> If you like the new and shiny and want to get straight to work without much
> investment of time and mental cycles, it's likely not for you.

After I discovered Spacemacs, I somewhat disagree with this, because you get
so much funcionality in a well thought package, you don't need much
customization at first.

------
taktoa
I was a bit surprised when I saw the link to the Nix package manager; it
seemed rather out of context. I wonder if he just googled Nix and copy-pasted
the first result?

~~~
teddyh
I think he Googled “*nix” and Google ate the asterisk.

------
kayman
Jetbrains IDE is great. I use Eclipse for Java. But emacs is my go to editor.

It has his weak points but I find myself always keeping it fired up and using
it for any text editing that doesn't require a large IDE.

I just wish there was a site to setup Emacs as the ideal IDE for say:

\- Javascript \- Python \- Django ...

~~~
Walkman
there is:
[https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs](https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs)

There is a Django layer in it, you can start runserver witha keystroke, open
settings.py with another keystroke, run all tests, etc..

~~~
curiousdude99
Seriously, people should stop over customizing their .emacs.d . I use mostly
default (community) config from Spacemacs and it works just fine. You can use
both vi keybinding and emacs keybinding at the sametime in Spacemacs. I
reduced 2k+ lines init.el config to about 200 lines in Spacemacs.

------
na85
Wow. The site loads the text with javascript simply to achieve a fade-in
effect. With noscript enabled it's simply a blank page.

Fuck this trend in web design, and fuck this site. I hate how javascript-heavy
the web has become. Why do I need scripts enabled to read a page of text?

~~~
frou_dh
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9238739](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9238739)

~~~
pdkl95
Bikeshedding, which your link complains about, is offering opinions on minutia
instead of addressing the actual problems that actually need discussion.

Expressing concern about the trend the web is going - executable code instead
of open documents - _is_ a primary concern if we want to preserve what's left
of the open web. It's important to call out social problems like this so
people get accurate feedback[1] about what is and isn't acceptable behavior.

[1] see B. F. Skinner and his box (operant conditioning)

~~~
frou_dh
> the actual problems that actually need discussion

That's some mouthful you've come up with to avoid involving "the article",
which is the blindingly obvious context for top-level comments on a link
aggregator.

> It's important to call out [...] problems like this

The HN admin seems to disagree.

~~~
pdkl95
> top-level comment

What? This doesn't make sense.

> That's some mouthful you've come up with to avoid saying "the article"

I'm not referring to the article. That "actual problem" was in reference to
the parent comment about requiring readers to execute javascript to read text.

