18 ms·

Personally, I find that Helm is the third (although I'm aware it might not be a popular opinion).

yaantc 9y ago
I love Helm. Tab completion is fine when you know exactly what you want and the point is just to save some keystrokes. When completion involves some exploration is where Helm shines and is way better than tab completion, as it doesn't requires knowing the order of parts of the string to complete and support regexps. When exploring some large code base, or trying to get at a rarely used emacs function or variable whose name you don't remember exactly (but it's about foo and bar for sure) there is definitely this fuzzy discovery element. And then the Helm approach is a blessing. Helm is completion + efficient exploration and discovery.
pmoriarty 9y ago
If you like Helm, check out Ivy, Counsel, and Swiper.[1] They do many of the things that Helm does, but are a lot faster, less buggy, and have a less unorthodox UI. Also check out Hydra (by the same author).[2] That's really revolutionized my Emacs experience recently. It's customizable menu system you can add anywhere. I've put all those Emacs functions I keep forgetting exist in to it and now they're all at my fingertips. [1] - https://github.com/abo-abo/swiper https://github.com/abo-abo/swiper [2] - https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  > I've put all those Emacs functions I keep forgetting exist in to it and now they're all at my fingertips. Can you share some of that? I've been meaning to get into Hydra, and would gladly look at some configs.
  - pmoriarty 9y ago
    Hydra itself actually has a ton of really good examples here: [1] But really the best place to start is with the hydra docs: [2] which not only has examples but detailed explanations of them too. Regarding my own hydras, they're not quite ready for prime time. But when they are, I'll be posting them to r/emacs.[3] In the meantime, you can search there for hydras too: [4] [1] - https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra/wiki/Hydras-by-Topic https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra/wiki/Hydras-by-Topic [2] - https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra [3] - https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs [4] - https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/search?q=hydra&restrict_sr=on https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/search?q=hydra&restrict_sr=on
  - weaksauce 9y ago
    spacemacs has a notion of transient states with menu systems like that that is a set of hydra menus. something like `spc w .` to get into a window transient state that shows you this menu: https://i.imgur.com/2VADwd9.png https://i.imgur.com/2VADwd9.png or `spc b .` that gives you a bunch of buffer selection functions https://i.imgur.com/htj6xEn.png https://i.imgur.com/htj6xEn.png quite useful and pretty easy to add to if you have a niche that is not being fulfilled by the standard spacemacs. a more complex transient state might be for org-agenda https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/blob/master/layers/%2Bemacs/org/packages.el#L336 https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/blob/master/layers/%2B... and a complete list of transient states here by searching for `define-transient-state` that you may feel compelled to copy. https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=define-transient-state https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&...
- Myrmornis 9y ago
  I've tried twice to switch from helm (especially helm-projectile-grep) to the ivy ecosystem and I found the way that helm invokes the search tools to result in a much faster experience, and saw no reason to switch.
tptacek 9y ago
I like Helm, but Helm is thing that makes Emacs better at being Emacs; it's not a reason to use Emacs in the first place. But Magit is that. I get that for some people org-mode is the same way, but I've never been able to make org-mode click.

I love Helm. Tab completion is fine when you know exactly what you want and the point is just to save some keystrokes. When completion involves some exploration is where Helm shines and is way better than tab completion, as it doesn't requires knowing the order of parts of the string to complete and support regexps. When exploring some large code base, or trying to get at a rarely used emacs function or variable whose name you don't remember exactly (but it's about foo and bar for sure) there is definitely this fuzzy discovery element. And then the Helm approach is a blessing. Helm is completion + efficient exploration and discovery.

pmoriarty 9y ago

If you like Helm, check out Ivy, Counsel, and Swiper.[1] They do many of the things that Helm does, but are a lot faster, less buggy, and have a less unorthodox UI. Also check out Hydra (by the same author).[2] That's really revolutionized my Emacs experience recently. It's customizable menu system you can add anywhere. I've put all those Emacs functions I keep forgetting exist in to it and now they're all at my fingertips. [1] - https://github.com/abo-abo/swiper https://github.com/abo-abo/swiper [2] - https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra

TeMPOraL 9y ago
> I've put all those Emacs functions I keep forgetting exist in to it and now they're all at my fingertips. Can you share some of that? I've been meaning to get into Hydra, and would gladly look at some configs.
- pmoriarty 9y ago
  Hydra itself actually has a ton of really good examples here: [1] But really the best place to start is with the hydra docs: [2] which not only has examples but detailed explanations of them too. Regarding my own hydras, they're not quite ready for prime time. But when they are, I'll be posting them to r/emacs.[3] In the meantime, you can search there for hydras too: [4] [1] - https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra/wiki/Hydras-by-Topic https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra/wiki/Hydras-by-Topic [2] - https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra [3] - https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs [4] - https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/search?q=hydra&restrict_sr=on https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/search?q=hydra&restrict_sr=on
- weaksauce 9y ago
  spacemacs has a notion of transient states with menu systems like that that is a set of hydra menus. something like `spc w .` to get into a window transient state that shows you this menu: https://i.imgur.com/2VADwd9.png https://i.imgur.com/2VADwd9.png or `spc b .` that gives you a bunch of buffer selection functions https://i.imgur.com/htj6xEn.png https://i.imgur.com/htj6xEn.png quite useful and pretty easy to add to if you have a niche that is not being fulfilled by the standard spacemacs. a more complex transient state might be for org-agenda https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/blob/master/layers/%2Bemacs/org/packages.el#L336 https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/blob/master/layers/%2B... and a complete list of transient states here by searching for `define-transient-state` that you may feel compelled to copy. https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=define-transient-state https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&...
Myrmornis 9y ago
I've tried twice to switch from helm (especially helm-projectile-grep) to the ivy ecosystem and I found the way that helm invokes the search tools to result in a much faster experience, and saw no reason to switch.

tptacek 9y ago

I like Helm, but Helm is thing that makes Emacs better at being Emacs; it's not a reason to use Emacs in the first place. But Magit is that. I get that for some people org-mode is the same way, but I've never been able to make org-mode click.