6 ms·

My colleagues think I'm weird for using emacs, like i'm some 1980s retro fanboy. I can access my calendar (org-gcal), my email (mu4e), git (magit), edit files

My colleagues think I'm weird for using emacs, like i'm some 1980s retro fanboy. I can access my calendar (org-gcal), my email (mu4e), git (magit), edit files on a remote server (tramp) and have a full code editor with pep8 syntax checker and repl all from a single application. That same application also encompasses my file manager, my todo list, my pdf reader, my image viewer and if I really need it, a web-browser.

aerique 8y ago
But does it run in Electron?
oblio 8y ago
I keep hearing stuff like this on HN, just out of curiosity: > my calendar (org-gcal) Can org-gcal show calendar notifications? Can it access shared calendars? > my email (mu4e) Can you see and/or compose HTML mails? > my pdf reader Can you open and render correctly complex PDFs? Graphs, tables, images, tables of contents, maybe even forms, etc.?
- fantispug 8y ago
  You could cobble most of this together. You could probably get notifications using org-alert. Emacs does a reasonable job parsing most html including emails to text, but occasionally you may need to view in browser if it's very html heavy. You can compose html emails using org mode syntax with org-mime. PDFs are rendered as images. So you have limited emacs functionality, but it does a good job rendering PDFs. Doubt you can do forms.
  - chuchana 8y ago
    PDF-Tools lets you interact with PDF files in Emacs. No support for retina screens on Macs though, unfortunately. https://github.com/politza/pdf-tools https://github.com/politza/pdf-tools
- lokedhs 8y ago
  Not the original poster, but although a lot of Emacs users don't use HTML email, it's certainly possible to do it. I wrote an Emacs package that allowed me to render my emails in that way Outlook does it (comments on top, everything HTML). I write my emails using markup, and then it's all rendered prior to sending. I had people mention how pretty my emails were. HTML emails also render fine, with all images as you would expect. Emacs does support online images.
sakuronto 8y ago
How does this fit in with the Unix philosophy?
- saidajigumi 8y ago
  It doesn't, because "the Unix philosophy", in the meaning implied by your question, is oversimplified nonsense. There is both utility and architectural value to be found in integrated user experiences. To throw out just a few small examples, such experiences done well may reduce context switching and/or build on the user's deep skills in the integrated environment (esp. w/ Emacs' and vim's text manipulation support). Likewise, there is immense utility in a scriptable, user-programmable working environment, especially for developer's tools. Also note that Emacs and vim often comply with the oft-cited first bullet point (there's more than one!) of "the Unix philosophy" by reusing powerful yet single-purpose external tools under the hood. Case in point: git(this thread!), ag/ack, and so forth. So please forget the idea that bullet-point-one of the Unix philosophy is a sacred tablet from some ridiculous Unixy religion. It's just an old, occasionally useful, architectural rule of thumb that applies in relatively narrow circumstances relative to the breadth of modern computing experiences and implementations.
  - sakuronto 8y ago
    Haha, sorry, I know my question was begging for that response. But even if you (and many others) appreciate tighter integration, others would appreciate the flexibility of being able to pick and choose what they like from emacs without being overwhelmed by what is an incredibly foreign environment.
    - philippejara 8y ago
      You can use emacs to run elisp the exact same way you'd use a python script, emacs is pretty much an elisp shell. And there is no loss of flexibility, emacs doesn't reimplement everything from the ground up and most features are reliant on "shell programs". Dired for example is pretty much a sophisticated skin over an ls call if i'm not mistaken.
- 8y ago
maccard 8y ago
I already have email and calendar in the same application (outlook, thunderbird or just a web browser). What advantage does having my calendar and my PDF reader as the same application have over being two standalone applications? Same question for my editor and my email client - why do they need to be the same application? You need to press something to change from one to the other, it might as well be alt+tab (or whatever your OS of choice uses for changing the window in focus)
- nimchimpsky 8y ago
  > What advantage so you can be a 80's retro fan boy
- roenxi 8y ago
  Aha, I can answer this one. > email One view of email is really reading and composing lightly formatted text with a "send" option. From this perspective, a text editor implementing email makes a lot more sense than an email client implementing text editing. Especially for mostly-text emails or emails discussing, say, code. > calendar This one is pretty workflow sensitive, but Org Mode encourages a very holistic approach of writing everything related to a project in one file, then parsing the file for dates and creating a calendar. If this is your workflow, again it makes more sense to implement from a text editor (because the "calendar" is really a parsed text file and maintaining the text file is what the user works on). I can see a lot of utility in a stand-alone calendar program if the workflow you want isn't based on text, though. > PDF Has me stumped, although sometimes when I write documents that are going to be emailed as a pdf I'll use emacs and it makes a lot of sense to preview in place as I go. I must admit, the advantages aren't really there for me on this one, I prefer stand alone viewers. > changing the window in focus The secret is that many tasks involve 60% editing text and it then starts to make sense to implement the 40% in an environment where your heavily customised keyboard shortcuts all work. Eg, at the moment I'm writing a comment for a website - if I only viewed sites like Hacker News (mostly text reading and editing) then I would 100% end up doing it from emacs. Emacs falls down with images and navigating modern webpages though (haha modern; anything written in my lifetime), so I use a browser like everyone else.
  - 8y ago

aerique 8y ago

But does it run in Electron?

oblio 8y ago

I keep hearing stuff like this on HN, just out of curiosity: > my calendar (org-gcal) Can org-gcal show calendar notifications? Can it access shared calendars? > my email (mu4e) Can you see and/or compose HTML mails? > my pdf reader Can you open and render correctly complex PDFs? Graphs, tables, images, tables of contents, maybe even forms, etc.?

fantispug 8y ago
You could cobble most of this together. You could probably get notifications using org-alert. Emacs does a reasonable job parsing most html including emails to text, but occasionally you may need to view in browser if it's very html heavy. You can compose html emails using org mode syntax with org-mime. PDFs are rendered as images. So you have limited emacs functionality, but it does a good job rendering PDFs. Doubt you can do forms.
- chuchana 8y ago
  PDF-Tools lets you interact with PDF files in Emacs. No support for retina screens on Macs though, unfortunately. https://github.com/politza/pdf-tools https://github.com/politza/pdf-tools
lokedhs 8y ago
Not the original poster, but although a lot of Emacs users don't use HTML email, it's certainly possible to do it. I wrote an Emacs package that allowed me to render my emails in that way Outlook does it (comments on top, everything HTML). I write my emails using markup, and then it's all rendered prior to sending. I had people mention how pretty my emails were. HTML emails also render fine, with all images as you would expect. Emacs does support online images.

sakuronto 8y ago

How does this fit in with the Unix philosophy?

saidajigumi 8y ago
It doesn't, because "the Unix philosophy", in the meaning implied by your question, is oversimplified nonsense. There is both utility and architectural value to be found in integrated user experiences. To throw out just a few small examples, such experiences done well may reduce context switching and/or build on the user's deep skills in the integrated environment (esp. w/ Emacs' and vim's text manipulation support). Likewise, there is immense utility in a scriptable, user-programmable working environment, especially for developer's tools. Also note that Emacs and vim often comply with the oft-cited first bullet point (there's more than one!) of "the Unix philosophy" by reusing powerful yet single-purpose external tools under the hood. Case in point: git(this thread!), ag/ack, and so forth. So please forget the idea that bullet-point-one of the Unix philosophy is a sacred tablet from some ridiculous Unixy religion. It's just an old, occasionally useful, architectural rule of thumb that applies in relatively narrow circumstances relative to the breadth of modern computing experiences and implementations.
- sakuronto 8y ago
  Haha, sorry, I know my question was begging for that response. But even if you (and many others) appreciate tighter integration, others would appreciate the flexibility of being able to pick and choose what they like from emacs without being overwhelmed by what is an incredibly foreign environment.
  - philippejara 8y ago
    You can use emacs to run elisp the exact same way you'd use a python script, emacs is pretty much an elisp shell. And there is no loss of flexibility, emacs doesn't reimplement everything from the ground up and most features are reliant on "shell programs". Dired for example is pretty much a sophisticated skin over an ls call if i'm not mistaken.
8y ago

maccard 8y ago

I already have email and calendar in the same application (outlook, thunderbird or just a web browser). What advantage does having my calendar and my PDF reader as the same application have over being two standalone applications? Same question for my editor and my email client - why do they need to be the same application? You need to press something to change from one to the other, it might as well be alt+tab (or whatever your OS of choice uses for changing the window in focus)

nimchimpsky 8y ago
> What advantage so you can be a 80's retro fan boy
roenxi 8y ago
Aha, I can answer this one. > email One view of email is really reading and composing lightly formatted text with a "send" option. From this perspective, a text editor implementing email makes a lot more sense than an email client implementing text editing. Especially for mostly-text emails or emails discussing, say, code. > calendar This one is pretty workflow sensitive, but Org Mode encourages a very holistic approach of writing everything related to a project in one file, then parsing the file for dates and creating a calendar. If this is your workflow, again it makes more sense to implement from a text editor (because the "calendar" is really a parsed text file and maintaining the text file is what the user works on). I can see a lot of utility in a stand-alone calendar program if the workflow you want isn't based on text, though. > PDF Has me stumped, although sometimes when I write documents that are going to be emailed as a pdf I'll use emacs and it makes a lot of sense to preview in place as I go. I must admit, the advantages aren't really there for me on this one, I prefer stand alone viewers. > changing the window in focus The secret is that many tasks involve 60% editing text and it then starts to make sense to implement the 40% in an environment where your heavily customised keyboard shortcuts all work. Eg, at the moment I'm writing a comment for a website - if I only viewed sites like Hacker News (mostly text reading and editing) then I would 100% end up doing it from emacs. Emacs falls down with images and navigating modern webpages though (haha modern; anything written in my lifetime), so I use a browser like everyone else.
- 8y ago