4 ms·

As someone who is a loyal Emacs user, would you recommend Spacemacs over regular old Emacs? Also is the migration process very difficult? I've got to say, it ac

As someone who is a loyal Emacs user, would you recommend Spacemacs over regular old Emacs? Also is the migration process very difficult? I've got to say, it actually looks very nice and well polished.

grabcocque 10y ago
If you use evil mode it's a no brainer. If you're an adherent of the holy church thinking of turning evil, then it will obviously take some relearning, but it's incredibly discoverable, making exensive use of hierarchical mnemonics and helm after each keypress to know what commands are available to you. e.g. space-f-s is file->save, space-f-f is file->find, space-f-r is file->recent etc.
- na85 10y ago
  Yuck, is it modal? How do you type a space character?
  - s_kilk 10y ago
    You go into insert-mode (by pressing 'i') and type whatever you need, then press ESC to get back to normal-mode. It takes some getting used to, but I could never go back :)
  - DigitalJack 10y ago
    It's only modal if that is how you want it. On first run it asks if you want to run in a vim-mode or normal emacs mode.
  - wodenokoto 10y ago
    Are you implying that you expected a non-modal VIM mode?
mrsheen 10y ago
It's suitable for vim users who want better vim experience. For all other I'd suggest vanilla emacs or Prelude.
- grabcocque 10y ago
  Prelude is good too. I mean, you can use Spacemacs in Holy mode, but it's not really the point. Prelude and Emacs Live are much better holy mode kits. Spacemacs is, as the tagline says, FOCUSED ON EVIL.
- groovy2shoes 10y ago
  As a vim user, I emphatically disagree. It seems to support most vim commands, but the ones it doesn't support of course become the most frustrating. As an example, I cannot use <space> for movement/direction because it consistently pops up some stupid menu, even in the middle if entering a command. As a vim user, I'm also used to my editor starting up instantly. Spacemacs takes so long to load that it's laughable. And since GNU emacs is single-threaded, the whole UI is completely locked while it processes the massive amount of configuration needed to make spacemacs what it is. The only thing "better" about that is that it gives you an opportunity to take a coffee break. I'm reminded of the "code's compiling" XKCD: boss says, "hey! quit horsing around!", worker says "spacemacs is loading!" And this is with 8GB of RAM, 8 processor cores clocked at 3.2 GHz, and filesystem on an SSD drive. And then you run into problems with many packages from MELPA. If some third-party package introduces its own keybindings, then you still wind up with odd emacs-style keybindings here and there, rather than Vim-style ones. Furthermore, Vim's leader key is backslash, not space, regardless of how you like to configure it. So, what's "better" about it? The fact that it's got a "pretty" powerline statusline by default? The fact that it uses some dark colorscheme by default? That's not enough for me to abandon vim.
  - kiiski 10y ago
    > Spacemacs takes so long to load that it's laughable. Emacs is typically started once, and then you open files in the same instance. With vanilla emacs you can use `emacs --daemon` to start it as a server, and then use `emacsclient` to open files. That way it should open pretty much instantly. I'm not sure what Spacemacs calls those.
    - groovy2shoes 10y ago
DigitalJack 10y ago
While I haven't run spacemacs in non-vim mode, it is there. Give it a try. It's all built into .emacs.d, so it's easy to try and drop if you want to. Just backup your .emacs.d first.
tangue 10y ago
The modal mode is not mandatory. You can change a variable and have the classic Emacs keybindings + the advantages of spacemacs (sane configuration, beautiful look)
gnuvince 10y ago
Spacemacs looks nice and is well polished, but I'd say if you have a comfortable setup that you are used to, it's probably not worth the hassle.

grabcocque 10y ago

If you use evil mode it's a no brainer. If you're an adherent of the holy church thinking of turning evil, then it will obviously take some relearning, but it's incredibly discoverable, making exensive use of hierarchical mnemonics and helm after each keypress to know what commands are available to you. e.g. space-f-s is file->save, space-f-f is file->find, space-f-r is file->recent etc.

na85 10y ago
Yuck, is it modal? How do you type a space character?
- s_kilk 10y ago
  You go into insert-mode (by pressing 'i') and type whatever you need, then press ESC to get back to normal-mode. It takes some getting used to, but I could never go back :)
- DigitalJack 10y ago
  It's only modal if that is how you want it. On first run it asks if you want to run in a vim-mode or normal emacs mode.
- wodenokoto 10y ago
  Are you implying that you expected a non-modal VIM mode?

mrsheen 10y ago

It's suitable for vim users who want better vim experience. For all other I'd suggest vanilla emacs or Prelude.

grabcocque 10y ago
Prelude is good too. I mean, you can use Spacemacs in Holy mode, but it's not really the point. Prelude and Emacs Live are much better holy mode kits. Spacemacs is, as the tagline says, FOCUSED ON EVIL.
groovy2shoes 10y ago
As a vim user, I emphatically disagree. It seems to support most vim commands, but the ones it doesn't support of course become the most frustrating. As an example, I cannot use <space> for movement/direction because it consistently pops up some stupid menu, even in the middle if entering a command. As a vim user, I'm also used to my editor starting up instantly. Spacemacs takes so long to load that it's laughable. And since GNU emacs is single-threaded, the whole UI is completely locked while it processes the massive amount of configuration needed to make spacemacs what it is. The only thing "better" about that is that it gives you an opportunity to take a coffee break. I'm reminded of the "code's compiling" XKCD: boss says, "hey! quit horsing around!", worker says "spacemacs is loading!" And this is with 8GB of RAM, 8 processor cores clocked at 3.2 GHz, and filesystem on an SSD drive. And then you run into problems with many packages from MELPA. If some third-party package introduces its own keybindings, then you still wind up with odd emacs-style keybindings here and there, rather than Vim-style ones. Furthermore, Vim's leader key is backslash, not space, regardless of how you like to configure it. So, what's "better" about it? The fact that it's got a "pretty" powerline statusline by default? The fact that it uses some dark colorscheme by default? That's not enough for me to abandon vim.
- kiiski 10y ago
  > Spacemacs takes so long to load that it's laughable. Emacs is typically started once, and then you open files in the same instance. With vanilla emacs you can use `emacs --daemon` to start it as a server, and then use `emacsclient` to open files. That way it should open pretty much instantly. I'm not sure what Spacemacs calls those.
  - groovy2shoes 10y ago

DigitalJack 10y ago

While I haven't run spacemacs in non-vim mode, it is there. Give it a try. It's all built into .emacs.d, so it's easy to try and drop if you want to. Just backup your .emacs.d first.

tangue 10y ago

The modal mode is not mandatory. You can change a variable and have the classic Emacs keybindings + the advantages of spacemacs (sane configuration, beautiful look)

gnuvince 10y ago

Spacemacs looks nice and is well polished, but I'd say if you have a comfortable setup that you are used to, it's probably not worth the hassle.