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Emacs needs a package manager that is as easy to use as the one that comes with VS Code. The plugins are the reason VS Code is popular. It's so, so easy to dis

Emacs needs a package manager that is as easy to use as the one that comes with VS Code. The plugins are the reason VS Code is popular. It's so, so easy to discover them and install them. You can download VS code and have a working dev environment with autocomplete and a debugger for almost any major programming language in 10 minutes. When I started working in the tech industry, Textmate was pretty popular. It was supplanted by Sublime Text, which was supplanted by VS Code. Each time, the main factor in getting people to switch was the ease of finding and installing plugins.

Davidbrcz 6y ago
As of today, there are 4 721 packages for Emacs on MELPA (https://melpa.org/#/ https://melpa.org/#/). The setup to use it are a couple of lines in the config file.
- CJefferson 6y ago
  However, users have to first know it's an option to use. Why not add it by default, and even have a menu option to install package? VSCode will even recommend popular packages depending on file types you load.
  - Davidbrcz 6y ago
    Because it's not core emacs. Core emacs uses ELPA, which has fewer packages.
    - twblalock 6y ago
      Don’t you see why that’s a problem? Multiple package managers, with none enabled out of the box, and poor usability?
      - Davidbrcz 6y ago
        It's not multiple packages managers, but different sources for packages. And elpa is enabled out of the box ;-)