
Trail blazing innovators - Use Emacs - lbj
http://bestinclass.dk/index.clj/2010/07/trail-blazing-innovators.html
======
jff
I tried it. I really did. I decided I'd be a rock-star code-god Emacs user
that did everything in emacs.

I set up Wanderlust, and by god it sorta worked with Gmail. Sorta. There were
little problems with messages getting resurrected as "unread" even after I'd
read them, and composing a message meant my "drafts" folder got pounded by
incremental saved messages every 30 seconds, but whatever.

Then I tried to find a web browser that runs in Emacs and will display pages
properly, not in the broken Links/Lynx way (with or without pictures). No
dice. Oh well.

Then I started using IRC and my IM clients in Emacs. They worked ok, but it
was around this point that I started to realize what an incredible pain in the
ass it is to manage buffers in Emacs.

To start with, you never _really_ have enough space on screen, so a lot of the
buffers end up being hidden. Ok, whatever, but then you realize it's a hassle
to even switch over to a different buffer, with the M-x b type-some-of-the-
buffer-name dance, since you can't keep them all on-screen to switch around
with C-x o. Of course, C-x o begins to get cumbersome when I have more than a
couple windows/buffers open on screen at a time.

Then I realized that I'd really rather make my fingers feel happier (and yes,
I use the swapped Caps Lock key) and just use this amazing tool we already
have. It's designed for selecting things, and it moves spatially in 2
dimensions. I guess I don't look so haxxor-1337 anymore, waving that mouse
around like a clueless Windows user, but I'm actually happy now that I left
the Cult of the Key-Combo.

These days, I read my email in Firefox because I just don't care, and I do all
my coding and text-editing in Acme, because I do care. For all the bullshit
Emacsians spew about "losing focus by switching applications", they're
switching applications at least as much as I do, every single time they M-x
wanderlust, or switch over to the Org buffer--they're just switching
applications with M-x b, rather than Alt-Tab.

~~~
rntz
I agree that using emacs for _everything_ is not for everyone. But with
regards to switching between buffers being cumbersome:

1\. If you're not willing to change your keybindings to taste, Emacs basically
isn't for you; its default bindings are terrible. I suggest binding switch-to-
buffer (C-x b) and other-window (C-x o) to single, easy-to-reach chords (I use
C-. and C-' respectively).

2\. switch-to-buffer sucks. Use iswitchb-mode; it gives you interactive
completion of buffer names with substring matching. It also lists your buffers
in most-recently-used order, so switching back-and-forth between two buffers
is trivial. (There's also ido-mode, which adds interactive completion to even
more things with even more features.)

Basically this is the same issue that emacs has always had: the learning curve
is steep and you have to invest some time and explore in order to find
settings that work for you. (I'm sure you're happy with your current setup;
I'm making this post more for people who might be scared away from Emacs than
to try and convert you.)

~~~
ecyrb
I'm pretty happy with LustyExplorer [1] which sounds like it does what
iswitchb-mode does, but also has a decent find-file browser.

1\. <http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/LustyExplorer>

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koenigdavidmj
Seems like Emacs is just becoming a large window manager in itself. Instead of
having a lot of apps and using Alt-Tab to go between them, you stay in Emacs,
have buffers, and use C-x o to flip between them.

~~~
sp332
GNU screen is better at that, IMHO. But then screen doesn't have Google Maps
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1472314> :-)

~~~
mahmud
You're comparing apples and mares; one is a tasty fruit, the other is nature's
Toyota Prius.

GNU Screen can not possibly have Google Maps or any other applicationy feature
as long as it is a _vt multiplexer_.

------
robryan
To me this reads "We're better than you because we're all using emacs". Sure
making the best use of development tools is important but it's just a means to
an end, that can be reached in different ways.

~~~
WalterGR
Right. And strawmen like

 _I know that there are many would disagree and claim that Mouse-driven IDEs
and XML based configs are the way to move forward, but I firmly believe that
such convictions stem from a lack of exposure._

don't help the argument.

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kqueue
The title sounds like: Wear MJ shoes and you'll play like MJ.

~~~
mannicken
I think the proper analogy is: if you want to be like Kurt Cobain, get a real
guitar instead of playing Rockband on expert all the time.

And yes, I did just compare Eclipse/Studio/etc to Rockband :)

~~~
mahmud
The Cobain analogy best fits TextMate or Notepad++, not Emacs.

The Emacs analogy might hold for SrV or Jeff Beck; exceptionally good, but
only a celebrity among a small community of die-hard fans.

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msluyter
I used to use and love emacs, but I stopped because the various control key
combinations were too hard on my hands.

~~~
Niten
Did you try mapping caps lock as a control key, like on the Sun keyboards?
Before I did this I had trouble with Emacs, but since then it's been perfect
for me.

~~~
yummyfajitas
This is good advice, but it's not enough.

I found I had to actively train myself to use two-handed key chords. Right
control-w, left control n, etc.

~~~
Hexstream
I remapped my CTRL, ALT and Left Shift keys so I can easily press them with my
thumbs in any combination (I use a TypeMatrix).

No more alternating nonsense. Pressing modifiers is instantaneous and requires
no thought.

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briancooley
The Clojure debugging stuff at about 12:00 into the screencast is a really
nice piece of information.

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natep
I expected this to be a survey of what editors trail blazing innovators use.
I'm disappointed.

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mhd
Wanderlust doesn't look to bad. Had some trouble getting GNUS to work with
GMail, might give that one a try.

------
billmcneale
emacs is to text editors what Dwarf Fortress is to video games.

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mkramlich
this screencast is the first thing that's made me seriously consider switching
to Emacs from vi

~~~
parfe
The important thing to keep in mind is that emacs is ridicously bad at editing
text.

It does everything else well, but coming from Vim you just need to accept
you'll never edit text as well.

edit: And to add some of the best emacs I got was don't worry about closing
buffers. Focus on work and ignore the window and buffer management. In the end
you won't notice if you've got greps/acks, manpages, emails, or whatever open
because you're too busy writing code.

~~~
spudlyo
_The important thing to keep in mind is that emacs is ridicously bad at
editing text._

I don't know why this is being voted up. This is utter nonsense and not
supported by any arguments.

~~~
parfe
What do you mean supported by arguments? It's obviously my opinion comparing
Emacs to Vim.

Vim is excellent at editing text. Really really good at it. Emacs is not. It's
better than this vanilla comment box in firefox for sure, but compared to
Vim's modal editing it's a dog. People injure themselves typing in Emacs. It's
actually dangerous!

And my comment was getting votes because people agreed until you came along
with your meta comment.

~~~
sprout
You are bad at editing text in Emacs. I am bad at editing text in Vim. That
really has nothing to do with their intrinsic value.

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openfly
vi vs emacs war plz 2 not have.

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dgrant
The only Emacs command you need to know is CTRL-X CTRL-C

