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It's not even all that hard to start using, since you can use the menu system for just about any command that a beginner might sensibly want his text editor to

by hugh3 16y ago

It's not even all that hard to start using, since you can use the menu system for just about any command that a beginner might sensibly want his text editor to perform.

silentbicycle 16y ago
Sure, but if it was just about "any command that a beginner might sensibly want his text editor to perform", they could stick with textmate (or whatever). Using menus inherently sucks, because it doesn't scale to hundreds of operations. Emacs transcends both, but I don't begrudge the people who prefer vim either - each cuts the bullshit and focuses on actual editing. Also, a lot of people who build Emacs extensions (self included) consider the menus as an afterthought, best dealt with after cancer (or C++) is cured, i.e., never.
- hugh3 16y ago
  Sure, but using the menus is just the starting point on the learning curve. After staring at 'em for a while you figure out what "C-x C-f" means and pretty soon you're playing pinkie twister with the best of 'em. That's the way I learned emacs, anyway. Of course there's many, many hidden depths I've never learned after nine years.
- 1amzave 16y ago
  Hell, I just turn off the menu bar entirely -- and the scroll bar and the toolbar with all the goofy buttons on it...waste of valuable screen real estate that could have text in it, if you ask me. One of these days I'll get around to re-binding M-` to something useful, too...
greyfade 16y ago
There's a menu? No, seriously. I've been using Vim for years and I've been recently trying to earn Emacs (and finding the tutorial to be atrociously unhelpful to me in that process), and all this time, I thought the menu was an XEmacs thing. (Sorta like how it is in GVim.) I never really notice the menu bar, and I still don't know how to activate it. Edit: Oh. M-`. Who the hell thought that was a good idea?
- silentbicycle 16y ago
  You can also type M-x menu-bar-mode (where "M-x" means "alt-x" or "ESC x").

by hugh3 16y ago

It's not even all that hard to start using, since you can use the menu system for just about any command that a beginner might sensibly want his text editor to perform.

silentbicycle 16y ago

Sure, but if it was just about "any command that a beginner might sensibly want his text editor to perform", they could stick with textmate (or whatever). Using menus inherently sucks, because it doesn't scale to hundreds of operations. Emacs transcends both, but I don't begrudge the people who prefer vim either - each cuts the bullshit and focuses on actual editing. Also, a lot of people who build Emacs extensions (self included) consider the menus as an afterthought, best dealt with after cancer (or C++) is cured, i.e., never.

hugh3 16y ago
Sure, but using the menus is just the starting point on the learning curve. After staring at 'em for a while you figure out what "C-x C-f" means and pretty soon you're playing pinkie twister with the best of 'em. That's the way I learned emacs, anyway. Of course there's many, many hidden depths I've never learned after nine years.
1amzave 16y ago
Hell, I just turn off the menu bar entirely -- and the scroll bar and the toolbar with all the goofy buttons on it...waste of valuable screen real estate that could have text in it, if you ask me. One of these days I'll get around to re-binding M-` to something useful, too...

greyfade 16y ago

There's a menu? No, seriously. I've been using Vim for years and I've been recently trying to earn Emacs (and finding the tutorial to be atrociously unhelpful to me in that process), and all this time, I thought the menu was an XEmacs thing. (Sorta like how it is in GVim.) I never really notice the menu bar, and I still don't know how to activate it. Edit: Oh. M-`. Who the hell thought that was a good idea?

silentbicycle 16y ago
You can also type M-x menu-bar-mode (where "M-x" means "alt-x" or "ESC x").