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What I want from an editor: 1. no code completion -- rarely works well. To get it to work well, it requires set up, and when I start a project, I don't want to
by tathougies 6y ago
What I want from an editor:
1. no code completion -- rarely works well. To get it to work well, it requires set up, and when I start a project, I don't want to waste time setting anything up. Also, doesn't work for interesting things, like code generation. I realize most programmers rarely do anything like that, but I do.
2. Customizability -- emacs is super-customizable. Lisp is easy to understand and you can basically do anything.
3. No mouse -- I'm faster just using keyboard shortcuts
4. Runs in terminal or graphical -- When I ssh into a machine, I want to be able to use Emacs through the terminal
5. Orthogonal user-interface -- In Emacs, everything is a buffer. I can use the same interface to navigate through Emacs 'configuration' as I can through my code. I can use the same interface to navigate through the Emacs terminal emulator as my code as well. This is amazing. Contrast this to 'newer' editors like Sublime or Eclipse, where the configuration dialog, git interface, etc, are all custom UIs. To understand why this makes a difference compare and contrast the experience of using a Web-based App via a browser to the feeling of using a Native App. The native app may 'feel' nicer when you look at it, but nothing beats the consistency of the browser interface (back button, copy/paste integration, links, etc.). There's a reason HTML based interfaces are so popular
6. Universal support -- emacs runs on basically everything. So does VIM (Probably more than emacs)
7. Support for large numbers of libraries, languages, etc -- I've rarely found any new language, framework, etc, which doesn't have support in Emacs. With some changes to my init.el, the package is installed (thanks to use-package), and I'm done.
8. Easy dot files -- I have several computers. To set up emacs on a new computer, I just copy my .elisp directory.
In other words, the advantages of Emacs and VIM over other editors are:
1. Text-based interfaces
2. Universal support
3. Customizability
4. Adherence to the UNIX philosophy (everything represented as text)
- 0-_-0 6y agoConsidering the popularity of Vim and Emacs I sometimes wonder if I'm missing out by not using them over my preferred editor, but whenever people describe their reasons for using them in lists like this, I see nothing that I would consider an advantage over my current setup, and then just forget about the whole thing.
- npsimons 6y ago> whenever people describe their reasons for using them in lists like this, I see nothing that I would consider an advantage over my current setup, and then just forget about the whole thing. TBF, you've just described exactly how us emacs and vim users feel every time someone says "why aren't you using shiny new editor X? It has feature Y!"
- im3w1l 6y agoAs an emacs user who has used a few IDE's in my time, some nice things you might be missing (but which you may not care enough about to switch): Easily recording and playing back macros. Delete-rectangle / insert-rectangle Undo tree Jumping backwards/forwards a whole word with a keypress. Can be run inside terminal, when a command needs an $EDITOR
- 0-_-0 6y agoThank you. 1. Notepad++ has macros when I need it. 2. Rectangular selection is available is VSCode and I use it a lot. The generalisation, multiple cursors (with each cursor having its own clipboard), is the best thing since sliced bread in a text editor. 3. I don't have undo tree, I can see it being useful sometimes. Hope it appears in VSCode soon [1]. Fequent automated backups (file history) works OK as an alternative. 4. Ctrl+left, ctrl+right jumps a word in every editor in Windows. In VSCode you can also jump a fraction of a word (to an underscore or the next part of a camel case name). 5. Well this I can't do but never needed to. [1] https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/84297#issuecomment-583467138 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/84297#issuecommen...
- postalrat 6y agoIt's your list so make it however you want. But to me it looks more like a list of reasons you love emacs than a list of requirements.