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Longtime vi/vim user. I've tried emacs over the years (as well as Atom). I can get work done but inevitably when I need to do some power editing, I drift back t

Longtime vi/vim user. I've tried emacs over the years (as well as Atom). I can get work done but inevitably when I need to do some power editing, I drift back to what I know best. I'm sure that if an emacs user went the other way, they'd also drift back to emacs for the same reasons. Basically, both (and other) environments are sufficient such that there isn't a killer feature on either side that would entice someone like me over the great divide for the duration. So for me, the editor wars are over.

melling 7y ago
Emacs is a great editor construction kit. That’s its killer feature. If you like the vi bindings, etc, you build a great vi editor in Emacs, for example. http://spacemacs.org/ http://spacemacs.org/
- CalChris 7y ago
  The emacs bindings are fine (although I seem to recall hitting the escape key a lot). It's when you need to go past that and do power editing. I'm used to dropping into ex mode and using sed style regular expressions. Now I'm certain that there's a way to do that emacs. It's just that that was the point where I'd drift back to vim to get work done. I couldn't quite force myself to do things the emacs way.
- m463 7y ago
  I've always wondered how you pronounce that. Is it space-y-macs or is it like dr spaceman (spah-chem-uhn) in 30 rock. :)
  - yellowapple 7y ago
    I've always pronounced it "space macs", both because that's intuitive and because it fits the original meaning of "EMACS" ("Editor MACroS", so "SPACE MACroS" in this case).
zarkov99 7y ago
Emacs vim bindings are really, really good, and there is widespread support for them in popular emacs packages (org, mode, magit, etc). Look for evil-* in the emacs package manager.
- chipotle_coyote 7y ago
  Emacs has the second-best Vim bindings of any editor that I've used.
just_myles 7y ago
Same. I can do so much in vi already.
billfruit 7y ago
Killer features for me would be remote file editing(using tramp) which is much more convenient than using vim over ssh, easy record replay of macros, rectangular edits, integration with gdb to work as a lightweight convenient GUI, convenient use as a file manager using dired, horizontal vertical window splits( even having synchronized scrolling), and all these out of the box with no additional packages/configuration required. Emacs is truly batteries included.
vincent-toups 7y ago
I was a 5+ year VIM person before I jumped to Emacs. The killer feature for be is comint. Back when I switched there was nothing quite like it in Vim and I really wanted to interact with a bunch of different Shells from different buffers. Comint is still the number one feature for me today.

melling 7y ago

Emacs is a great editor construction kit. That’s its killer feature. If you like the vi bindings, etc, you build a great vi editor in Emacs, for example. http://spacemacs.org/ http://spacemacs.org/

CalChris 7y ago
The emacs bindings are fine (although I seem to recall hitting the escape key a lot). It's when you need to go past that and do power editing. I'm used to dropping into ex mode and using sed style regular expressions. Now I'm certain that there's a way to do that emacs. It's just that that was the point where I'd drift back to vim to get work done. I couldn't quite force myself to do things the emacs way.
m463 7y ago
I've always wondered how you pronounce that. Is it space-y-macs or is it like dr spaceman (spah-chem-uhn) in 30 rock. :)
- yellowapple 7y ago
  I've always pronounced it "space macs", both because that's intuitive and because it fits the original meaning of "EMACS" ("Editor MACroS", so "SPACE MACroS" in this case).

zarkov99 7y ago

Emacs vim bindings are really, really good, and there is widespread support for them in popular emacs packages (org, mode, magit, etc). Look for evil-* in the emacs package manager.

chipotle_coyote 7y ago
Emacs has the second-best Vim bindings of any editor that I've used.

just_myles 7y ago

Same. I can do so much in vi already.

billfruit 7y ago

Killer features for me would be remote file editing(using tramp) which is much more convenient than using vim over ssh, easy record replay of macros, rectangular edits, integration with gdb to work as a lightweight convenient GUI, convenient use as a file manager using dired, horizontal vertical window splits( even having synchronized scrolling), and all these out of the box with no additional packages/configuration required. Emacs is truly batteries included.

vincent-toups 7y ago

I was a 5+ year VIM person before I jumped to Emacs. The killer feature for be is comint. Back when I switched there was nothing quite like it in Vim and I really wanted to interact with a bunch of different Shells from different buffers. Comint is still the number one feature for me today.