4 ms·

That's cool if you can remember roughly what the command is called. For example, I wanted to format some XMl in a buffer. In a GUI, I'm fairly sure I could find

That's cool if you can remember roughly what the command is called. For example, I wanted to format some XMl in a buffer. In a GUI, I'm fairly sure I could find this easily, in emacs it is "go to google" and find out that you want sgml-petty-print or whatever. So a bunch of M-x searching for "format" is hopeless. Emacs tends to have its own names for many concepts, making things even more obtuse.

BeetleB 6y ago
In about 70-80% of the cases, using ido or helm, with some guesses on what the command name may contain, is enough to find me what I need. But yes, to be frank, my productivity in Emacs really took off once I started memorizing things with flashcards. I currently have 603 cards for Emacs (including elisp). (And telling a newbie that would cause a lot of despair!)[2] The other thing that really helped is I started using/making hydras.[1] So now when I encounter a new, interesting mode, instead of memorizing lots of command names or keybindings, I just build my own custom menus. [1] https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra [2] But it really shouldn't. Emacs, with all its packages, and modes, is like a language with all its libraries, and not just the standard ones. Remembering all the commands/keybindings is akin to expecting someone to know all the APIs in all the libraries. It's OK if you don't. Most people don't.
jcynix 6y ago
Microsoft's office products are mostly GUI centered. But I rarely can easily find ways to accomplish things there and instead get lost in their GUI, which sometimes looks like a twisty maze of little passages all different. So "GUI" isn't a panacea for ease of use IMO. In emacs I can use "apropos" (i.e. "c-h a") or "c-h v" for example to search for ways to accomplish what I'd like to do.
fluffything 6y ago
> That's cool if you can remember roughly what the command is called. > > [ ... ] > > In a GUI, I'm fairly sure I could find this easily, in emacs it is "go to google" and find out that you want sgml-petty-print or whatever. I just yank into a new buffer, set it to xml mode, "M-x indent" reveals the command to format xml (indent-region or indent-buffer or something like that), enter, yank it back. Done. In an editor with a gui, I would just go to "Help -> Search" and do pretty much the same, which would reveal the menu item to click to achieve something. I find emacs ido/helm workflow for this much better. Never need to memorize anything.

BeetleB 6y ago

In about 70-80% of the cases, using ido or helm, with some guesses on what the command name may contain, is enough to find me what I need. But yes, to be frank, my productivity in Emacs really took off once I started memorizing things with flashcards. I currently have 603 cards for Emacs (including elisp). (And telling a newbie that would cause a lot of despair!)[2] The other thing that really helped is I started using/making hydras.[1] So now when I encounter a new, interesting mode, instead of memorizing lots of command names or keybindings, I just build my own custom menus. [1] https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra [2] But it really shouldn't. Emacs, with all its packages, and modes, is like a language with all its libraries, and not just the standard ones. Remembering all the commands/keybindings is akin to expecting someone to know all the APIs in all the libraries. It's OK if you don't. Most people don't.

jcynix 6y ago

Microsoft's office products are mostly GUI centered. But I rarely can easily find ways to accomplish things there and instead get lost in their GUI, which sometimes looks like a twisty maze of little passages all different. So "GUI" isn't a panacea for ease of use IMO. In emacs I can use "apropos" (i.e. "c-h a") or "c-h v" for example to search for ways to accomplish what I'd like to do.

fluffything 6y ago

> That's cool if you can remember roughly what the command is called. > > [ ... ] > > In a GUI, I'm fairly sure I could find this easily, in emacs it is "go to google" and find out that you want sgml-petty-print or whatever. I just yank into a new buffer, set it to xml mode, "M-x indent" reveals the command to format xml (indent-region or indent-buffer or something like that), enter, yank it back. Done. In an editor with a gui, I would just go to "Help -> Search" and do pretty much the same, which would reveal the menu item to click to achieve something. I find emacs ido/helm workflow for this much better. Never need to memorize anything.