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Many Emacs users don't use a mouse much or at all, and the tab interface is primarily for people who do most navigation using their mouse. For those of us who

Many Emacs users don't use a mouse much or at all, and the tab interface is primarily for people who do most navigation using their mouse. For those of us who find having to take a hand off the keyboard slow and irritating, tabs are a waste of valuable screen real estate. Also bear in mind that an Emacs session for many users lasts for days or months (I just checked---the Emacs server session running on the machine I do most of my work on has been running since last November, and I currently have more than 50 buffers open). In that sort of use-case, tabs don't make any sense, but tools like Helm and Projectile make it quite efficient and easy to navigate among your files and buffers. I don't have any great need or investment in convincing others to use Emacs. However, people might want to consider that, while new users often detest it, those who do spend the time to actually learn it---which, to be honest, probably requires an investment of time and focus few are willing to offer---then refuse to ever use anything else. Surely they're finding something of value that casual users aren't encountering. Complaints about Emacs invariably seem to be some variant of "it's not like my favourite editor, which has feature x, so I won't use it". Which always sounds to me a lot like an experienced car driver refusing to try a helicopter because it doesn't have a steering wheel.

oblio 9y ago
I don't use tabs with the mouse. There are many shortcuts for tab management: previous tab/next tab, open tab/close tab, switch to tab 1-9, move tabs around, etc. Also, with Vim you can mix and match tabs and splits to have many files open at the same time. You also have buffers, which I believe are the exact equivalent to Emacs buffers, you can have a gazillion buffers open at the same time and only a few visible.
- hiq 9y ago
  Same, I use tabs both in i3 and vim, and I never use my mouse (I use keynav when I have to, for instance with firefox). I've seen some vim workflows using only buffers instead of tabs, but they required doing :ls :b buff_number to switch to another file, which seems worse than looking at your tabs and repetitively do "gt" to access the corresponding tab. I could use the ctrlp plugin or one of its alternative to fuzzy search on the file name instead of manually changing the buffer, but I still don't see a real benefit over using tabs. I guess it makes sense with really big projects where you have to open more than 10 files at a time.
  - mewse 9y ago
    For what it's worth, instead of tabs, I used to use file marks. That gives you up to 24 "tabs" that you can switch to using just two keypresses. `mA` to set the current buffer as tab 'A', and `'A` to go to A. That gets you heaps more speed than repeatedly `gt`ing your way through an array of open buffers. (I don't use file marks for this purpose any more. I got annoyed at how file marks saved and restored the cursor position within the buffer, so I wrote my own vim plugin to use a similar "map this buffer as A", "go back to buffer A" system, without saving/restoring the cursor position as well. I never really properly released it, but feel free to give it a try if you feel it would scratch an itch for you. It's over here: https://github.com/vectorstorm/vim-spacelanes https://github.com/vectorstorm/vim-spacelanes )
- weaksauce 9y ago
  Why not use perspectives(or workspaces I can't remember which is which) then? Those are basically tabs without the visual top.
  - heartbreak 9y ago
    Because the visual top is the most important part for me. I flip through using key shortcuts (I never mouse in my editor), but I hate not having tabs when I use Spacemacs.
taeric 9y ago
Love the closing analogy. Especially because it does not rule out there being a better way to drive helicopters. To underline that, what folks have working for them is working for them. Sometimes, it can help to try and push out of a comfort zone. But, there are no guarantees. To that end, try what others report as working for them. But don't sweat it.

oblio 9y ago

I don't use tabs with the mouse. There are many shortcuts for tab management: previous tab/next tab, open tab/close tab, switch to tab 1-9, move tabs around, etc. Also, with Vim you can mix and match tabs and splits to have many files open at the same time. You also have buffers, which I believe are the exact equivalent to Emacs buffers, you can have a gazillion buffers open at the same time and only a few visible.

hiq 9y ago
Same, I use tabs both in i3 and vim, and I never use my mouse (I use keynav when I have to, for instance with firefox). I've seen some vim workflows using only buffers instead of tabs, but they required doing :ls :b buff_number to switch to another file, which seems worse than looking at your tabs and repetitively do "gt" to access the corresponding tab. I could use the ctrlp plugin or one of its alternative to fuzzy search on the file name instead of manually changing the buffer, but I still don't see a real benefit over using tabs. I guess it makes sense with really big projects where you have to open more than 10 files at a time.
- mewse 9y ago
  For what it's worth, instead of tabs, I used to use file marks. That gives you up to 24 "tabs" that you can switch to using just two keypresses. `mA` to set the current buffer as tab 'A', and `'A` to go to A. That gets you heaps more speed than repeatedly `gt`ing your way through an array of open buffers. (I don't use file marks for this purpose any more. I got annoyed at how file marks saved and restored the cursor position within the buffer, so I wrote my own vim plugin to use a similar "map this buffer as A", "go back to buffer A" system, without saving/restoring the cursor position as well. I never really properly released it, but feel free to give it a try if you feel it would scratch an itch for you. It's over here: https://github.com/vectorstorm/vim-spacelanes https://github.com/vectorstorm/vim-spacelanes )
weaksauce 9y ago
Why not use perspectives(or workspaces I can't remember which is which) then? Those are basically tabs without the visual top.
- heartbreak 9y ago
  Because the visual top is the most important part for me. I flip through using key shortcuts (I never mouse in my editor), but I hate not having tabs when I use Spacemacs.

taeric 9y ago

Love the closing analogy. Especially because it does not rule out there being a better way to drive helicopters. To underline that, what folks have working for them is working for them. Sometimes, it can help to try and push out of a comfort zone. But, there are no guarantees. To that end, try what others report as working for them. But don't sweat it.