> The effort to configure emacs is just too much when vscode does it seamlessly I've considered that multiple times. It's not that modifying Emacs is difficult

> The effort to configure emacs is just too much when vscode does it seamlessly I've considered that multiple times. It's not that modifying Emacs is difficult (it isn't!) or that modifying VSCode is easier – it isn't, if it's not in a menu or extension somewhere, it's painful just like any other editor except Emacs. Rather, I've found it was due to: * Emacs or external tools not playing well with each other * The Visual Studio Code extensions for popular languages are rather comprehensive and well done. YMMV, sometimes you are lucky to get syntax highlighting. Where Emacs will probably have some pretty battle tested support for more esoteric file formats or languages. Also Spacemacs was a life saver. I've thrown away thousands of lines of custom Emacs Lisp code.