3 ms·

And all those Emacs jokes don't work anymore

by hansen 8y ago

oblio 8y ago
I don't use Emacs, but those Emacs jokes kind of stopped when having 64MB of memory became common. So circa 2000 :)
- bhaak 8y ago
  Yeah, my current Emacs session is using 2 GB of RAM and that is considered low memory usage these days.
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  - dwringer 8y ago
    I don't think that kind of memory usage is necessarily common - I get sessions that grow for whatever reason but typically I can have several emacs instances running at once using less than 100MB each - the ones I treat like notepads are often less than 10MB.
    - tyingq 8y ago
      "the ones I treat like notepads are often less than 10MB" Interesting. That's not much off the old "eight megs and constantly swapping" joke.
    - nine_k 8y ago
      Hmm, why would one run several emacs instances? Emacs supports the client-server model, which I find very convenient and fast. Basically having `EDITOR="emacsclient -n"` allows you to use the one emacs everywhere.
      - dwringer 8y ago
        I run them with different color themes and fonts (randomly chosen from a list on startup) so I can instantly see which window is being used for which project (I juggle several at work - I also take advantage of Windows 10's virtual desktops so get them spread out all over the place). If one of them goes haywire I don't feel bad about killing it since the others remain unaffected, so I never really considered using just a single server instance. Since I don't run out of memory and have CPU cycles to spare most of the time, it works well enough for my current needs. I also tend to run the windows with partial transparency so I can see bits and pieces of other sessions/browsers/etc behind them - something I was slightly hesitant to start doing but that has made using the computer feel much more "lightweight" (for lack of a better term). I've found it surprisingly useful to have emacs show a second buffer slightly faded directly through the first one.
        jolmg 8y ago
        I too, for a time, had setup my system so that windows were partially transparent. It looked cool, and helped to find windows when they were hidden behind other ones. Then, one day, I turned the partial transparency off, and found it to be very relaxing on my sight and brain. I didn't feel any strain when I started, but I guess it accumulated. For context, I use a tiling window manager with an average of 4 to 7 windows per workspace-monitor combo. Back then, I also set up a moving background (a screensaver always on in the root window). In fact, I think that was the primary motivator. I had gone years without a wallpaper because having a tiling window manager made it meaningless and I was missing having some eye candy. Having partial transparency would let me see the moving background through the windows. Anyway, I digress and I'm back to no transparency, no background, in any case.
        nine_k 8y ago
        The best setup I had was the focused window having 100% opacity, and other windows, say, 80%. Worked wonderfully under Linux. Unfortunately, I had to switch to a Mac as my main machine, and OSX does not support that (and has pretty poor window management in general).

And all those Emacs jokes don't work anymore

by hansen 8y ago

And all those Emacs jokes don't work anymore

oblio 8y ago

I don't use Emacs, but those Emacs jokes kind of stopped when having 64MB of memory became common. So circa 2000 :)

bhaak 8y ago
Yeah, my current Emacs session is using 2 GB of RAM and that is considered low memory usage these days.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- dwringer 8y ago
  I don't think that kind of memory usage is necessarily common - I get sessions that grow for whatever reason but typically I can have several emacs instances running at once using less than 100MB each - the ones I treat like notepads are often less than 10MB.
  - tyingq 8y ago
    "the ones I treat like notepads are often less than 10MB" Interesting. That's not much off the old "eight megs and constantly swapping" joke.
  - nine_k 8y ago
    Hmm, why would one run several emacs instances? Emacs supports the client-server model, which I find very convenient and fast. Basically having `EDITOR="emacsclient -n"` allows you to use the one emacs everywhere.
    - dwringer 8y ago
      I run them with different color themes and fonts (randomly chosen from a list on startup) so I can instantly see which window is being used for which project (I juggle several at work - I also take advantage of Windows 10's virtual desktops so get them spread out all over the place). If one of them goes haywire I don't feel bad about killing it since the others remain unaffected, so I never really considered using just a single server instance. Since I don't run out of memory and have CPU cycles to spare most of the time, it works well enough for my current needs. I also tend to run the windows with partial transparency so I can see bits and pieces of other sessions/browsers/etc behind them - something I was slightly hesitant to start doing but that has made using the computer feel much more "lightweight" (for lack of a better term). I've found it surprisingly useful to have emacs show a second buffer slightly faded directly through the first one.
      - jolmg 8y ago
        I too, for a time, had setup my system so that windows were partially transparent. It looked cool, and helped to find windows when they were hidden behind other ones. Then, one day, I turned the partial transparency off, and found it to be very relaxing on my sight and brain. I didn't feel any strain when I started, but I guess it accumulated. For context, I use a tiling window manager with an average of 4 to 7 windows per workspace-monitor combo. Back then, I also set up a moving background (a screensaver always on in the root window). In fact, I think that was the primary motivator. I had gone years without a wallpaper because having a tiling window manager made it meaningless and I was missing having some eye candy. Having partial transparency would let me see the moving background through the windows. Anyway, I digress and I'm back to no transparency, no background, in any case.
      - nine_k 8y ago
        The best setup I had was the focused window having 100% opacity, and other windows, say, 80%. Worked wonderfully under Linux. Unfortunately, I had to switch to a Mac as my main machine, and OSX does not support that (and has pretty poor window management in general).