9 ms·

Why Emacs is great - SLIME repl for developing in-browser javascript

95 points by jlongster 16y ago

bretthoerner 16y ago
Related: https://github.com/3b/slime-proxy https://github.com/3b/slime-proxy
sjs 16y ago
This and js2-mode make Emacs a ridiculously good JS editor.
- mccutchen 16y ago
  The last time I tried js2-mode, its indentation rules really drove me crazy. So now I use espresso-mode (which reliably indents the way I expect it to) to write my JS and turn on js2-mode to have it lint my JS. Do you know if that has changed, or if maybe I'm missing some easy .emacs magic to make it work?
  - jlongster 16y ago
    I had the same problem with js2-mode. For a while I just accepted the indentation rules and it started to make sense, and it also helped that I tweaked the code and settings to fix the real annoyances. I was pretty happy with it but I stopped doing a lot of javascript. Not sure what the status of js2-mode is right now.
  - johnbender 16y ago
    https://github.com/mitchellh/dotfiles/blob/master/emacs.d/modes.el https://github.com/mitchellh/dotfiles/blob/master/emacs.d/mo... You can steal the hooks at the bottom of the file to use the indentation of espresso mode. This was driving me insane too. Thanks to mitchellh for publishing his dotfile :D
    - mccutchen 16y ago
      This looks like it's exactly what I was looking for. Many, many thanks to you.
    - chaitanya 16y ago
      Thanks, it was really useful for me too.
  - mnemonik 16y ago
    I also got upset by how whimsical js2-mode can be at times. Espresso-mode (now just js-mode in emacs 23) indents perfectly, and is generally very sane, albeit somewhat boring. I use that as my major mode. However, to get the cool static analysis that I miss from js2-mode, I have flymake set up to us jslint. http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/FlymakeJavaScript http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/FlymakeJavaScript The combo of espresso-mode and flymake is like The Good Parts of js2-mode. Now once I add this in to the mix...
- nimms 16y ago
  the main reason I don't use js2-mode is that it breaks mumamo mode which I use in nxhtml. That said, it is a pretty amazing mode. I should look into js2-mode for js files and maybe espresso for nxhtml
emef 16y ago
This is the kind of reason I switched from vi/vim for code editing. There is so much available power and flexibility in emacs, and it really makes things fun.
- aidenn0 16y ago
  Would a SLIME-like frontend for vim have kept you on vim, or is it the extensibility of EMACS in general that caused you to switch?
  - nimms 16y ago
    I switched from VIM to emacs. While a lot of the nice things in emacs can eventually be backported into vim, I think the extensibility and apples all/most of the way down approach of emacs is superior. Even after using it for 6 years, I'm continually astounded by the things people do with it. I've just discovered pabbrev-mode for js and ruby editing. It's off the hook. Also once you've coded with a repl in an inferior shell buffer, you won't know how you ever did without it
    - silentbicycle 16y ago
      While the extensibility of Emacs could be ported to vi, it isn't fitting with the culture/design. The best summary I've heard is that vi is an editor, Emacs is an environment. (I prefer vi as an editor, but use Emacs. Go figure.) pabbrev rocks! The fact that you can just add that sort of functionality to Emacs is telling.
      - nimms 16y ago
        yeah, I think a lot of the frustration with the emacs editing experience comes down to its standard keybindings. While on a level they do make sense, there's far too much cruft and history in them. Having to type multiple keystrokes to do things like save files, switch buffers, split windows etc is pretty poor in this day and age. I used to use vimpulse until I discovered ergo-emacs. It provides a really good set of alt keybindings for the most common emacs commands. Makes using emacs so much nicer

95 points by jlongster 16y ago

bretthoerner 16y ago

Related: https://github.com/3b/slime-proxy https://github.com/3b/slime-proxy

sjs 16y ago

This and js2-mode make Emacs a ridiculously good JS editor.

mccutchen 16y ago
The last time I tried js2-mode, its indentation rules really drove me crazy. So now I use espresso-mode (which reliably indents the way I expect it to) to write my JS and turn on js2-mode to have it lint my JS. Do you know if that has changed, or if maybe I'm missing some easy .emacs magic to make it work?
- jlongster 16y ago
  I had the same problem with js2-mode. For a while I just accepted the indentation rules and it started to make sense, and it also helped that I tweaked the code and settings to fix the real annoyances. I was pretty happy with it but I stopped doing a lot of javascript. Not sure what the status of js2-mode is right now.
- johnbender 16y ago
  https://github.com/mitchellh/dotfiles/blob/master/emacs.d/modes.el https://github.com/mitchellh/dotfiles/blob/master/emacs.d/mo... You can steal the hooks at the bottom of the file to use the indentation of espresso mode. This was driving me insane too. Thanks to mitchellh for publishing his dotfile :D
  - mccutchen 16y ago
    This looks like it's exactly what I was looking for. Many, many thanks to you.
  - chaitanya 16y ago
    Thanks, it was really useful for me too.
- mnemonik 16y ago
  I also got upset by how whimsical js2-mode can be at times. Espresso-mode (now just js-mode in emacs 23) indents perfectly, and is generally very sane, albeit somewhat boring. I use that as my major mode. However, to get the cool static analysis that I miss from js2-mode, I have flymake set up to us jslint. http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/FlymakeJavaScript http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/FlymakeJavaScript The combo of espresso-mode and flymake is like The Good Parts of js2-mode. Now once I add this in to the mix...
nimms 16y ago
the main reason I don't use js2-mode is that it breaks mumamo mode which I use in nxhtml. That said, it is a pretty amazing mode. I should look into js2-mode for js files and maybe espresso for nxhtml

emef 16y ago

This is the kind of reason I switched from vi/vim for code editing. There is so much available power and flexibility in emacs, and it really makes things fun.

aidenn0 16y ago
Would a SLIME-like frontend for vim have kept you on vim, or is it the extensibility of EMACS in general that caused you to switch?
- nimms 16y ago
  I switched from VIM to emacs. While a lot of the nice things in emacs can eventually be backported into vim, I think the extensibility and apples all/most of the way down approach of emacs is superior. Even after using it for 6 years, I'm continually astounded by the things people do with it. I've just discovered pabbrev-mode for js and ruby editing. It's off the hook. Also once you've coded with a repl in an inferior shell buffer, you won't know how you ever did without it
  - silentbicycle 16y ago
    While the extensibility of Emacs could be ported to vi, it isn't fitting with the culture/design. The best summary I've heard is that vi is an editor, Emacs is an environment. (I prefer vi as an editor, but use Emacs. Go figure.) pabbrev rocks! The fact that you can just add that sort of functionality to Emacs is telling.
    - nimms 16y ago
      yeah, I think a lot of the frustration with the emacs editing experience comes down to its standard keybindings. While on a level they do make sense, there's far too much cruft and history in them. Having to type multiple keystrokes to do things like save files, switch buffers, split windows etc is pretty poor in this day and age. I used to use vimpulse until I discovered ergo-emacs. It provides a really good set of alt keybindings for the most common emacs commands. Makes using emacs so much nicer