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An IDE has some integration benefits, sure, for a relatively tiny number of languages, typically, compared to Emacs and Vim, at the cost of amazing raw editing

An IDE has some integration benefits, sure, for a relatively tiny number of languages, typically, compared to Emacs and Vim, at the cost of amazing raw editing capability no IDE comes close to. Samples: copy/paste rectangles of text, interactive regular expression replace, dynamic abbreviation expansion, edit remote files via SSH, exchange words around punctuation, treat words, lines, sentences, expressions, functions as movable units, works on a bare terminal, works via X, spawns windows on other displays while sharing the same buffers, saves multiple cursor positions, supports macros that can cross modes (open/close files in the directory browser and mod them in a single macro), and so on ad nauseam. Anyone only aware of just using arrows keys in their IDE to move around and DEL + text insert to edit is blind to an entire universe of elevated editing possibilities in true power editors like Vim and Emacs. Emacs is my IDE. I use Vim too. Both in their native keybindings. And when I taught, I had all my Unix students learn both of them the same way. I have never seen another editor that comes even close to them for power of raw text manipulation. Got one?

nicoburns 6y ago
> copy/paste rectangles of text, interactive regular expression replace, dynamic abbreviation expansion, edit remote files via SSH, exchange words, ..., saves multiple cursor positions Most of the popular text GUI editors (VS Code, Sublime Text, etc) can do these things. > treat words, lines, sentences, expressions, functions as movable units, works on a bare terminal, works via X, spawns windows on other displays while sharing the same buffers, supports macros that can cross modes (open/close files in the directory browser and mod them in a single macro), These ones not so much, but then you also give up quite a bit by being in a terminal, having to deal with modes, etc.
- jnxx 6y ago
  > Most of the popular text GUI editors (VS Code, Sublime Text, etc) can do these things. Yeah but Emacs could to that twenty years ago. Picking up git support in Microsoft tools took more than fifteen years, I think. The same will happen with upcoming useful new features and techniques, just because they do not fit some companies marketing and product strategy. Does one really wants to be that much behind with useful features and tools?

nicoburns 6y ago

> copy/paste rectangles of text, interactive regular expression replace, dynamic abbreviation expansion, edit remote files via SSH, exchange words, ..., saves multiple cursor positions Most of the popular text GUI editors (VS Code, Sublime Text, etc) can do these things. > treat words, lines, sentences, expressions, functions as movable units, works on a bare terminal, works via X, spawns windows on other displays while sharing the same buffers, supports macros that can cross modes (open/close files in the directory browser and mod them in a single macro), These ones not so much, but then you also give up quite a bit by being in a terminal, having to deal with modes, etc.

jnxx 6y ago
> Most of the popular text GUI editors (VS Code, Sublime Text, etc) can do these things. Yeah but Emacs could to that twenty years ago. Picking up git support in Microsoft tools took more than fifteen years, I think. The same will happen with upcoming useful new features and techniques, just because they do not fit some companies marketing and product strategy. Does one really wants to be that much behind with useful features and tools?