3 ms·

I'm a moderately experienced Emacser - been using it heavily since 2009 (first encountered it in 2003). I have written a few small extensions and contributed fe

I'm a moderately experienced Emacser - been using it heavily since 2009 (first encountered it in 2003). I have written a few small extensions and contributed features and bug fixes to bigger ones. Credentials established, I cannot recommend this tutorial enough: https://david.rothlis.net/emacs/tutorial.html https://david.rothlis.net/emacs/tutorial.html He walks you through most of the core of what makes Emacs great by showing you how to make a change to a project in the idiomatic Emacs way. I would have learned it years faster had I started there. Beyond that, learn basic Emacs keybindings via the tutorial, as others have suggested. I started in Emacs but installed evil-mode a few years ago and have never looked back. I do not recommend Spacemacs. Install the tools you want as you find you want them, so that you know what's doing what, and so you have a decent chance of knowing what broke things when something stops working. Keep your packages in version control as part of your .emacs.d repository. That keeps updates and deleted packages from screwing you. Use "use-package" (https://github.com/jwiegley/use-package https://github.com/jwiegley/use-package) for configuring what you install. It's written by one of the Emacs maintainers and will help you do things right by default. I'm not the best Emacser out there, but if you're curious, my config is on my GitHub account: https://github.com/NateEag/.emacs.d https://github.com/NateEag/.emacs.d Happy hacking.

smitty1e 7y ago
Spacemacs is getting decent press here. How recently have you tried it?
- freshhawk 7y ago
  I recently switched form spacemacs to my own config that works in a similar way. I'm committed to modal editing and vim keybindings already, so spacemacs introduced me to emacs and got me to convert, but it is a 90% for everyone solution. It adds tons of stuff that mostly works, stuff which you specifically mostly don't need. It mostly works, but coming from vim spacemacs is a big black box for the most part. I think it is a fantastic first step if you need to get something mostly working. Going through and building up my own .emacs with the parts I wanted was the way I finally learned to grok emacs for real. It took that step to actually be able to understand what's happening when something unexpected happens. I also discovered a lot of alternatives to the spacemacs packages, well known by real emacs users, that I much prefer to the choices made by the spacemacs team.
- NateEag 7y ago
  I object to Spacemacs not on the grounds that it works poorly, but on the grounds that if you throw all that into your config at once you will almost certainly have no idea what's causing problems or how to debug them. Once you have a decent idea how the parts fit together, you don't really need Spacemacs, IMO. I think the last time I tinkered with it at all was about a year and a half ago?
- fiddlerwoaroof 7y ago
  I’ve used spacemacs before and have coworkers that uses it and, I’ve never found it pleasant to use. Unlike plain-evil-mode, it changes too many of the default emacs keybindings and it’s easier to build up a nice config (I.e. I ported my vimrc to emacs in a couple afternoons just by porting the keybindings and finding packages to replace my vim customizations) than it is to pare away unwanted features from spacemacs
- lliamander 7y ago
  Spacemacs shows you what Emacs can be, but adds a lot of complexity that most people don't need. I am currently a spacemacs user (holy mode, ya dirty heathens) and I like a lot of the built in functionality. However, I think that I will eventually build up my own config from vanilla.
  - smitty1e 7y ago
    The joy of emacs is that you really can configure it down to a gnat's booty.

smitty1e 7y ago

Spacemacs is getting decent press here. How recently have you tried it?

freshhawk 7y ago
I recently switched form spacemacs to my own config that works in a similar way. I'm committed to modal editing and vim keybindings already, so spacemacs introduced me to emacs and got me to convert, but it is a 90% for everyone solution. It adds tons of stuff that mostly works, stuff which you specifically mostly don't need. It mostly works, but coming from vim spacemacs is a big black box for the most part. I think it is a fantastic first step if you need to get something mostly working. Going through and building up my own .emacs with the parts I wanted was the way I finally learned to grok emacs for real. It took that step to actually be able to understand what's happening when something unexpected happens. I also discovered a lot of alternatives to the spacemacs packages, well known by real emacs users, that I much prefer to the choices made by the spacemacs team.
NateEag 7y ago
I object to Spacemacs not on the grounds that it works poorly, but on the grounds that if you throw all that into your config at once you will almost certainly have no idea what's causing problems or how to debug them. Once you have a decent idea how the parts fit together, you don't really need Spacemacs, IMO. I think the last time I tinkered with it at all was about a year and a half ago?
fiddlerwoaroof 7y ago
I’ve used spacemacs before and have coworkers that uses it and, I’ve never found it pleasant to use. Unlike plain-evil-mode, it changes too many of the default emacs keybindings and it’s easier to build up a nice config (I.e. I ported my vimrc to emacs in a couple afternoons just by porting the keybindings and finding packages to replace my vim customizations) than it is to pare away unwanted features from spacemacs
lliamander 7y ago
Spacemacs shows you what Emacs can be, but adds a lot of complexity that most people don't need. I am currently a spacemacs user (holy mode, ya dirty heathens) and I like a lot of the built in functionality. However, I think that I will eventually build up my own config from vanilla.
- smitty1e 7y ago
  The joy of emacs is that you really can configure it down to a gnat's booty.