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Whenever there's an Emacs thread on HN, I want to post the following quote from Neal Stephenson's "In the beginning was the command line": "It is written in Li

Whenever there's an Emacs thread on HN, I want to post the following quote from Neal Stephenson's "In the beginning was the command line": "It is written in Lisp, which is the only computer language that is beautiful. It is colossal, and yet it only edits straight ASCII text files, which is to say, no fonts, no boldface, no underlining. In other words, the engineer-hours that, in the case of Microsoft Word, were devoted to features like mail merge, and the ability to embed feature-length motion pictures in corporate memoranda, were, in the case of emacs, focused with maniacal intensity on the deceptively simple-seeming problem of editing text. If you are a professional writer--i.e., if someone else is getting paid to worry about how your words are formatted and printed--emacs outshines all other editing software in approximately the same way that the noonday sun does the stars. It is not just bigger and brighter; it simply makes everything else vanish."

iLemming 6y ago
> emacs outshines all other editing software in approximately the same way that the noonday sun does the stars What makes Emacs genuinely great? Not that it was built a long time ago and withstood the test of time. Not the fact that it is absolutely free to use, distribute and extend. Not that it doesn't have tons of bugs (it does), or has superb support for every known programming language (it does not). To understand what makes Emacs so awesome, to learn and master it, one simply needs to embrace the single fundamental truth about it. Emacs based on Lisp. And please don't make a mistake - I am not talking here about a programming language. I am talking about an idea - one of the most magnificent ideas in computer science. Embrace the awesomeness of that idea, the fluidity, and malleability of the structure. Accept it with all its incredible power and some unavoidable flaws - and you will gain superpowers. Which is not necessarily a good thing. Let me explain. There's a scientific term "umwelt" that biologists use to describe the world as experienced by a particular organism. Every one of us has this "umwelt" - our "subjective view of the world." Our umwelt is limited by our physical and mental capabilities, past experiences, and social circles we grow up and live. e.g., your subjective understanding of Renaissance Art would drastically differ from when you're taken to a museum at the age of three, and when you go there as an adult, or after studying art for fifteen years. Learning and understanding Lisp expands your umwelt. You will start seeing things differently. It doesn't inevitably make you a better programmer; it might, but doesn't guarantee it, just like suddenly gaining the ability to see things in the infrared spectrum not guaranteed to make your life better. Finally, once you embrace the idea of Lisp, soon enough, you find out - humans have yet to invent a better Lisp environment than Emacs. And that's what Emacs is - it is not just an editor, it is not a mere IDE. Most importantly, it is a Lisp environment - living, "breathing", dynamic and malleable. That's what makes it so extensible. And that's what makes it so versatile. And that's why it will never die.
- andreareina 6y ago
  " Emacs users are like Terry Pratchett’s Igors": https://chrisdone.com/posts/emacs-users-are-like-igor/ https://chrisdone.com/posts/emacs-users-are-like-igor/
  - nxpnsv 6y ago
    Emacth?
    - billwear 6y ago
      To even be compared to anything related to Terry Pratchett is honor enough! And that's EYE-gor, thank you very much.
  - contravariant 6y ago
    I knew they had an uncanny ability to show up out of nowhere as soon as someone mentions them.
- dreamcompiler 6y ago
  > Learning and understanding Lisp expands your umwelt. You will start seeing things differently. Lisp made me weird. Every day I say something like "Rabbits are machines for turning grass into rabbits" and my wife just rolls her eyes.
  - thecupisblue 6y ago
    Oh jesus. I don't Lisp but I guess I should start now since I'm in that mindset already.
    - iLemming 6y ago
      If you are a programmer, you are using [a subset of] Lisp already. Every single programming language that in use today was influenced by Lisp. Sadly, most of them dropped the main and arguably the most powerful feature of Lisp - homoiconicity.
idolaspecus 6y ago
Oh no. They say you shouldn't meet your heroes, but now I think it might be just as important to never learn which editor they use.
- groovy2shoes 6y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsoOG6ZeyUI&t=110s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsoOG6ZeyUI&t=110s

iLemming 6y ago

> emacs outshines all other editing software in approximately the same way that the noonday sun does the stars What makes Emacs genuinely great? Not that it was built a long time ago and withstood the test of time. Not the fact that it is absolutely free to use, distribute and extend. Not that it doesn't have tons of bugs (it does), or has superb support for every known programming language (it does not). To understand what makes Emacs so awesome, to learn and master it, one simply needs to embrace the single fundamental truth about it. Emacs based on Lisp. And please don't make a mistake - I am not talking here about a programming language. I am talking about an idea - one of the most magnificent ideas in computer science. Embrace the awesomeness of that idea, the fluidity, and malleability of the structure. Accept it with all its incredible power and some unavoidable flaws - and you will gain superpowers. Which is not necessarily a good thing. Let me explain. There's a scientific term "umwelt" that biologists use to describe the world as experienced by a particular organism. Every one of us has this "umwelt" - our "subjective view of the world." Our umwelt is limited by our physical and mental capabilities, past experiences, and social circles we grow up and live. e.g., your subjective understanding of Renaissance Art would drastically differ from when you're taken to a museum at the age of three, and when you go there as an adult, or after studying art for fifteen years. Learning and understanding Lisp expands your umwelt. You will start seeing things differently. It doesn't inevitably make you a better programmer; it might, but doesn't guarantee it, just like suddenly gaining the ability to see things in the infrared spectrum not guaranteed to make your life better. Finally, once you embrace the idea of Lisp, soon enough, you find out - humans have yet to invent a better Lisp environment than Emacs. And that's what Emacs is - it is not just an editor, it is not a mere IDE. Most importantly, it is a Lisp environment - living, "breathing", dynamic and malleable. That's what makes it so extensible. And that's what makes it so versatile. And that's why it will never die.

andreareina 6y ago
" Emacs users are like Terry Pratchett’s Igors": https://chrisdone.com/posts/emacs-users-are-like-igor/ https://chrisdone.com/posts/emacs-users-are-like-igor/
- nxpnsv 6y ago
  Emacth?
  - billwear 6y ago
    To even be compared to anything related to Terry Pratchett is honor enough! And that's EYE-gor, thank you very much.
- contravariant 6y ago
  I knew they had an uncanny ability to show up out of nowhere as soon as someone mentions them.
dreamcompiler 6y ago
> Learning and understanding Lisp expands your umwelt. You will start seeing things differently. Lisp made me weird. Every day I say something like "Rabbits are machines for turning grass into rabbits" and my wife just rolls her eyes.
- thecupisblue 6y ago
  Oh jesus. I don't Lisp but I guess I should start now since I'm in that mindset already.
  - iLemming 6y ago
    If you are a programmer, you are using [a subset of] Lisp already. Every single programming language that in use today was influenced by Lisp. Sadly, most of them dropped the main and arguably the most powerful feature of Lisp - homoiconicity.

idolaspecus 6y ago

Oh no. They say you shouldn't meet your heroes, but now I think it might be just as important to never learn which editor they use.

groovy2shoes 6y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsoOG6ZeyUI&t=110s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsoOG6ZeyUI&t=110s