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As a die hard Vi(m) user, who just rage quit Emacs today because it messed up on undoing things (Emacs did what Emacs does, sadly my brain doesn't work the same

As a die hard Vi(m) user, who just rage quit Emacs today because it messed up on undoing things (Emacs did what Emacs does, sadly my brain doesn't work the same way), I had hoped to see more than just "more excuses to never leave your editor"

duckerude 8y ago
I like to use undo-tree for making sense of my undo history. It's inspired by Vim, apparently, so it might work for you. https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/undo-tree.html https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/undo-tree.html
- FPGAhacker 8y ago
  Undo-tree is pretty awesome. Saved me from anguish more than a few times. But alas, emacs is just too slow during startup for my workflow. I use it with clojure but only because of Cider.
  - duckerude 8y ago
    It's very snappy to open if you run it as a server. Defining an alias for 'emacsclient -a= -c' was enough for me. It will boot Emacs if it's not already running, but otherwise, you immediately get a new frame hooked up to the running instance. You can also run Emacs as a systemd user service, to spare even that first delay. You do have to get into the habit of exiting by closing the buffer or the frame instead of quitting Emacs.
    - FPGAhacker 8y ago
      I’ve tried that a few times, but inevitably emacs+plugins get into a bad state and I have to restart. Plus I haven’t figured out how to keep my buffers organized. When I’m working on project x, I don’t want to see project y buffers. I’m sure there are many plugins for that too, but the state gets corrupted over time and stuff I use quits working. I much prefer separate instances for separate work, and nvim or vim start from scratch faster than an emacsclient connects.
  - kwhitefoot 8y ago
    But why close it? I never close Emacs.
    - FPGAhacker 8y ago
      I guess I use it differently than you. It’s common for me to get emacs+plugins into an unstable state.
- pmoriarty 8y ago
  Sadly, undo-tree is infamous for losing undo history. It's a wonderful package otherwise. Pity it hasn't been maintained in such a long time.
catacombs 8y ago
Give Emacs another go with Doom: https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs
accnumnplus1 8y ago
(Curious vim user here) Did you find any occasions where emacs was preferable to vim?
- knewter 8y ago
  vim zealot who's been using emacs lately: pros: - magit. unbelievable. - org mode. vimwiki pales in comparison - best vim emulation I've used - impressive operating system :) - configuration is awesome. doing literate org mode configuration with org babel. - lisp is cool. cons: - haven't gotten comfortable dealing with "projects" yet, navigating files feels awkward. - doesn't feel quite as good as an editor as vim, but better than anything else out there. - no flutter mode - elm integration not quite as nice as I'd like it feels like I'll get over the cons.
  - euler_ 8y ago
    Evil mode.
  - pmoriarty 8y ago
    "navigating files feels awkward" What makes navigating files in vim so much better? Vim was my primary editor for decades, but I was never particularly impressed with its file-navigation plugins, and mostly used the shell for file navigation. Emacs is really no worse in this regard, from what I can see. It has packages which are clones of or similar to vim plugins like NerdTree and the like (which I don't like myself and don't use, but they're there if that's your thing), and it has a bunch of other ways to navigate files -- like doing so from the minibuffer using counsel-find-file, or from dired, or from within a shell running inside Emacs, etc. "doesn't feel quite as good as an editor as vim" In what way? Have you tried evil? It makes Emacs 90% like vim, in my experience, and I rarely miss anything from the vim world myself (though, honestly, there are a handful of things that would be nice to have.. but not nearly enough for me to contemplate switching back to vim).
tobiaswk 8y ago
You should try Spacemacs; best of both worlds. It's amazing.
tarboreus 8y ago
The undo in Emacs is great, it's impossible to lose anything because you can undo your undos. I wouldn't start off doing serious work with it, though. Switch gradually and you can avoid these situations by looking stuff up in the moment. Pick a side project to start out with, not your main gig. And if you're a VI user, go with Spacemacs or at least use Evil.
- pmoriarty 8y ago
  It's very possible to lose your undo history if you use undo-tree. It's happened to me a bunch of times, and undo-tree is infamous for this. Sticking to vanilla Emacs undo is supposed to be more reliable.

duckerude 8y ago

I like to use undo-tree for making sense of my undo history. It's inspired by Vim, apparently, so it might work for you. https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/undo-tree.html https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/undo-tree.html

FPGAhacker 8y ago
Undo-tree is pretty awesome. Saved me from anguish more than a few times. But alas, emacs is just too slow during startup for my workflow. I use it with clojure but only because of Cider.
- duckerude 8y ago
  It's very snappy to open if you run it as a server. Defining an alias for 'emacsclient -a= -c' was enough for me. It will boot Emacs if it's not already running, but otherwise, you immediately get a new frame hooked up to the running instance. You can also run Emacs as a systemd user service, to spare even that first delay. You do have to get into the habit of exiting by closing the buffer or the frame instead of quitting Emacs.
  - FPGAhacker 8y ago
    I’ve tried that a few times, but inevitably emacs+plugins get into a bad state and I have to restart. Plus I haven’t figured out how to keep my buffers organized. When I’m working on project x, I don’t want to see project y buffers. I’m sure there are many plugins for that too, but the state gets corrupted over time and stuff I use quits working. I much prefer separate instances for separate work, and nvim or vim start from scratch faster than an emacsclient connects.
- kwhitefoot 8y ago
  But why close it? I never close Emacs.
  - FPGAhacker 8y ago
    I guess I use it differently than you. It’s common for me to get emacs+plugins into an unstable state.
pmoriarty 8y ago
Sadly, undo-tree is infamous for losing undo history. It's a wonderful package otherwise. Pity it hasn't been maintained in such a long time.

catacombs 8y ago

Give Emacs another go with Doom: https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs

accnumnplus1 8y ago

(Curious vim user here) Did you find any occasions where emacs was preferable to vim?

knewter 8y ago
vim zealot who's been using emacs lately: pros: - magit. unbelievable. - org mode. vimwiki pales in comparison - best vim emulation I've used - impressive operating system :) - configuration is awesome. doing literate org mode configuration with org babel. - lisp is cool. cons: - haven't gotten comfortable dealing with "projects" yet, navigating files feels awkward. - doesn't feel quite as good as an editor as vim, but better than anything else out there. - no flutter mode - elm integration not quite as nice as I'd like it feels like I'll get over the cons.
- euler_ 8y ago
  Evil mode.
- pmoriarty 8y ago
  "navigating files feels awkward" What makes navigating files in vim so much better? Vim was my primary editor for decades, but I was never particularly impressed with its file-navigation plugins, and mostly used the shell for file navigation. Emacs is really no worse in this regard, from what I can see. It has packages which are clones of or similar to vim plugins like NerdTree and the like (which I don't like myself and don't use, but they're there if that's your thing), and it has a bunch of other ways to navigate files -- like doing so from the minibuffer using counsel-find-file, or from dired, or from within a shell running inside Emacs, etc. "doesn't feel quite as good as an editor as vim" In what way? Have you tried evil? It makes Emacs 90% like vim, in my experience, and I rarely miss anything from the vim world myself (though, honestly, there are a handful of things that would be nice to have.. but not nearly enough for me to contemplate switching back to vim).

tobiaswk 8y ago

You should try Spacemacs; best of both worlds. It's amazing.

tarboreus 8y ago

The undo in Emacs is great, it's impossible to lose anything because you can undo your undos. I wouldn't start off doing serious work with it, though. Switch gradually and you can avoid these situations by looking stuff up in the moment. Pick a side project to start out with, not your main gig. And if you're a VI user, go with Spacemacs or at least use Evil.

pmoriarty 8y ago
It's very possible to lose your undo history if you use undo-tree. It's happened to me a bunch of times, and undo-tree is infamous for this. Sticking to vanilla Emacs undo is supposed to be more reliable.